The Legend of Mario: Ocarina of Time
by FairyTalePrincess16
Summary: A strange prophetic dream reaches not just Link, but five people from the Mushroom Kingdom as well! Upon sent to Hyrule, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad join up with Link to take down the threat putting the kingdom in danger. Together, they help Link earn the title of Hero of Time...
1. Destiny's Call

**At last, I'm finally working on a Saga that I really wanted to write! The Legend of Mario Saga! This one takes place before the events of the Descendants Saga. This Saga, as its name implies, is going to feature novelizations of my favorite Zelda games with my favorite Mario characters thrown into the mix. The order of stories is going to be by launch date with only a few exceptions.**

 **Just to clarify, my favorite Zelda games are Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Wind Waker, The Minish Cap, Twilight Princess, Spirit Tracks, Skyward Sword, A Link Between Worlds, Tri Force Heroes, and Breath of the Wild. Now for the exceptions: first one, Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild are the only games who are not going to be part of this Saga; they're reserved for a different Saga altogether. And the second exception, the Twilight Princess story is going to be after A Link Between Worlds instead of where it is mentioned above.**

 **That's all the notes I can give to you. I'm actually very excited to begin this Saga, honestly. And what better way to start it with a Zelda game everyone knows: Ocarina of Time? ;D**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Destiny's Call**

 _In the vast, deep forest of Hyrule… Long have I served as the guardian spirit… I am known as the Deku Tree…_

 _The children of the forest, the Kokiri, live here with me. Each Kokiri has his or her own guardian fairy._

 _However, there is one boy who does not have a fairy…_

* * *

 **(P.O.V. change)**

Thunder.

A drawbridge from an unfamiliar castle began to lower in the dark, stormy night.

Another thunder.

A horse's neigh was heard, followed with galloping sounds.

The drawbridge was now fully lowered, and a certain young woman was standing in front of the castle, somehow feeling the raindrops soak her hair, skin, and clothes, as if this was all real.

" _What… is this…?_ " she thought, looking at the castle with a puzzled expression.

Before she could make sense of what's going on, she looked inside the city beyond the lowered drawbridge to see a majestic white horse galloping towards her. She was quick to move out of the way as the horse ran past her, and she managed to take a quick glance at its passengers.

The one driving the horse was a strong young woman, with a young girl holding onto her. The girl took a quick glance at the puzzled young woman standing on the field with a somewhat sorrowful and fearful expression before the horse galloped into the distance until it was gone.

The young woman glanced after the vanished white horse, when she suddenly heard another horse neigh from behind her. Frightened, she turned around to see a darker horse, clearly not the gentle type, but its rider was far worse: a dark-skinned man with red hair and wearing dark armor. The devilish smirk on his face, along with his yellow-gold eyes standing out the most in the dark, gave a hint of evilness on this man.

And before she knew, the man slowly rose his left palm at her, conjuring some sort of energy blast in it. All she could do was widen her eyes in terror, paralyzed in fear. Everything went white…

"AAAAHHH!" …and then the woman screamed, waking up from her bed.

That woman just so happened to be Princess Peach.

"What… What was… that all about?!" she questioned between her panting. For as long as she could remember, she rarely has nightmares when asleep, and when she does, they always happen in the Mushroom Kingdom. But this one she just had was something completely new, since it didn't look like it took place in this kingdom. One obvious thing being that she didn't recognize her surroundings, including the people she saw in the dream.

The morning sun suddenly shined on the princess's face, enough to make her snap out of her sleepy trance. She usually kept the curtains in her room and the windows closed, but since it was hot yesterday, she decided to open the windows to let in some fresh air in order to cool down. Helping the fact that she was wearing a pink sleeveless nightgown instead of her other comfortable pajamas she likes wearing.

Deciding to think more about that nightmare for later, she got out of her bed and went through her normal morning routine, taking a shower and putting on her pink gown. After her breakfast, Toadsworth came to her after she stood up from her table.

"Good morning, Princess." he greeted. "Did you sleep well?"

"To be honest… not too well…" Peach lamented.

"Is that so? You had a nightmare?"

"I did. But for some strange reason, it was something completely different…"

"How it was?"

Peach told him her nightmare. After that, Toadsworth puzzled:

"Odd… And I just remembered that Toad came to me early and he told me that he also had a nightmare… which sounded similar to yours!"

"What?!" Peach exclaimed. "How could I and Toad have the same dream?"

"I have no idea. But just like all nightmares, once it's over, it's over, so don't worry too much about it, my dear." he then leaves.

"I hope so…" but Peach couldn't help but think: " _Though that one felt so real! Like… it's telling me something that's about to happen in the future…_ "

"Princess!" her thoughts were interrupted when a Toad guard rushed to her. "Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi had just arrived here!"

"Really? I'll greet them right now." Peach replied, walking along with the Toad guard. "Open the doors!" she ordered.

The Toad guards then opened the castle's front doors, revealing Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi standing at the entrance.

"Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, what a surprise to see you here!" Peach smiled while bowing.

"Morning, Peach." Mario replied, tipping his cap. "Toad actually called for us to come here."

"He did? Well, let's go to the throne room and we'll chat there."

Peach led them to the throne room, where they found Toad standing there.

"Mario! Luigi! Yoshi! You actually came!" he exclaimed.

"Hey, Toad!" the addressed trio greeted.

"Toad, why did you call for them?" Peach asked.

"Because…" Toad let out a sigh before continuing, "Princess, this might shock you… Toadsworth told you about me having a nightmare, right?" Peach nodded. "Well… Turns out that Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi also had the same nightmare."

Peach gasped in total shock and confusion upon hearing this. Five people having the same dream at the same night?! How is that possible?

"Oh my goodness…" she breathed. "Guys, it's not just you. I… I also had the same dream as well."

"WHAT?!" the four boys yelled.

"You too?!" Luigi flinched.

"No way!" Yoshi exclaimed.

"Five people dreaming the same thing at the same night… That's very unlikely!" Mario stated.

"Yeah!" Toad agreed. "Something is not right here!"

Unknown to them, there was a cloaked person hiding behind the throne overhearing the whole conversation.

" _The prophecy… It reached them too…_ " the person thought. " _That means… They might be the chosen ones for the task!_ "

With a finger snap, the person made a parchment appear and silently tossed it towards the group, landing near Yoshi's feet. The person disappears.

"Eh?" Yoshi looked down to see the parchment. "What's this?" he picks it up.

"Where did that parchment come from?" Luigi wondered. "Whatever. What does it say?"

Yoshi unfolds the parchment and reads: "Find me at the castle's backyard. I know the reason behind your nightmares."

"…That's it?" Toad raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah." Yoshi replied. "No return address at all."

"Do you think we could trust whoever sent this to us?" Mario asked.

"Well, it did say that it knows about our situation." Peach pointed out. "And if we really want to know why, then we have no choice."

With that settled, the group made their way to the castle's backyard. There, they found the cloaked person standing in front of the fountain with its back turned.

"Ah, so you read my message. I was hoping you would come." the person spoke for the first time. Its voice sounded feminine, so everyone could assume it was a woman.

"Who are you?" Peach asked.

The woman turned around to face them as she spoke: "You are not ready yet to know my name or who am I, so just refer me as a sorceress."

"Why are we not ready yet?" Toad questioned with a hint of anger.

"Always wanting to know the answers right away, just like him…" the sorceress mused.

"Him?" Luigi raised an eyebrow.

"It's a long story… First, you want to know why you all had the same dream, right?" everyone nodded. "Well, it turns out that this isn't an ordinary dream. It's a prophecy. A prophecy that it's about to happen in a brand different kingdom, affecting only those sensitive to it. And if it also reached you… Then I guess it's time for you all to fulfill your destiny."

"What destiny?" Mario asked.

"You all must head into the different kingdom I mentioned, and help out someone else who also shares a similar destiny."

"Now just hold up a second!" Toad interrupted. "Who said that just because we had the same dream means we'll have to go somewhere else? We just want to get rid of this dream tormenting us!"

"Because fulfilling this task is the only way to stop these nightmares for plaguing you. And I also fear that something bad might not only happen to that kingdom… but it might happen to the Mushroom Kingdom as well. And if that isn't taken care of quick enough, both kingdoms will be at mercy."

"Oh no…" Peach whimpered.

"T-Then I suggest we head to wherever we need to go ASAP!" Luigi stuttered.

"I agree!" Yoshi agreed.

"Hold up." the sorceress said. "Before I send you to your destination with my magic, you must first listen to my instructions. Listen well." the group nodded, ready to hear what she has to say. "First, the name of the kingdom you're going to is called Hyrule. Second, the person you'll be helping out is a young boy dressed in green with a fairy accompanying him, but I'll make sure to send you right where he's standing. Third, as soon as you meet him, you must stick together with him throughout the entire journey. And fourth, I suggest you pack some of your Power-Ups, as your journey is filled with many obstacles you must go through. You got all that?"

"We did." Mario answered for them.

"Good. You can go ahead and pack everything you need. Meet me back here when you're ready."

The group then left the backyard and went back into the castle to start packing. They stored some Power-Ups, of course, but Mario and Luigi also decided to bring their hammers as well. Once they were done, they went back to the backyard where they found the sorceress waiting for them.

"You ready?" she asked. The group nodded. "Alright, I'll open up a portal leading to your destination."

With a wave of her hand, the sorceress opened up a golden gate in front of her. The group approached the gate in awe.

"I can't believe this is actually happening to us…" Peach breathed.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Luigi asked a bit unsure.

"Oh, you'll be fine!" the sorceress answered, strangely changing her serious tone to a chirpy one… before playfully pushing them all into the gate as they screamed. "Good luck!"

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, in Hyrule…**_

"Navi… Navi, where art thou? Come hither…" an elderly voice spoke, which belonged to the Deku Tree in Kokiri Forest. A small blue fairy, presumably Navi, flew over to him.

"You called for me, Great Deku Tree?" Navi asked.

"Oh, Navi the fairy… Listen to my words, the words of the Deku Tree… Dost thou sense it? The climate of evil descending upon this realm… Malevolent forces even now are mustering to attack our land of Hyrule…"

"Oh no… That's horrible…"

"For so long, the Kokiri Forest, the source of life, has stood as a barrier, deterring outsiders and maintaining the order of the world… But…before this tremendous evil, even my power is as nothing… It seems the time has come for the boy without a fairy to begin his journey… As well as the five people who are not from this world… Hopefully the sorceress I sent has found them… The youths whose destiny it is to lead Hyrule to the path of justice and truth…"

"So I must search for the boy, then?"

"Yes…" he paused for a moment before continuing, "Navi…go now! Find our young friend and guide him to me… And once the five people have arrived, guide them to me as well… I do not have much time left. Fly, Navi, fly! The fate of the forest, nay, the world, depends upon thee!"

"Right!" Navi begins to fly away. "We won't fail you, Great Deku Tree!"

By flying right between Mido's legs, Navi arrives at Kokiri Village, greeting a Kokiri girl sitting on top of a shop along the way, as well as somehow bumping into a fence. After that, she flies inside probably the tallest tree house in the village, where the boy she must look for lives.

Inside, Navi flies slowly towards the sleeping boy and calls out:

"Hello, Link! Wake up! The Great Deku Tree wants to talk to you! Link, get up!"

"Mmm… Five more minutes…" Link mumbled in his sleep.

"Hey! C'mon! Can Hyrule's destiny really depend on such a lazy boy?"

With a yawn, Link groggily stands up and looks up at the one who woke him up.

" _A… fairy?_ " he thought.

"You finally woke up! I'm Navi the fairy!" Navi said. "The Great Deku Tree asked me to be your partner from now on! Nice to meet you!"

"Wait, your partner?!" Link flinched. "Are you for real?!"

"Yep! Anyway, the Great Deku Tree has summoned you! So let's get going…right now!"

"The Great Deku Tree wants to see me? Alright…" as Link began to walk out of his house, he thought: " _Why would the Great Deku Tree want me so suddenly? Oh well, at least I'm now a real Kokiri!_ " however, he didn't notice where he was going… and fell off the platform he was on. "WAAAAAUGH!" he screamed, faceplanting on the ground. What made this more embarrassing was that his friend, Saria, was standing there and winced at this.

"Oh dear…" she trailed. "Link, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Link replied, getting up. "Anyway, what are you doing out here, Saria?"

"Oh, just came here to say good morning." then, she noticed Navi flying next to him. "Wow! A fairy! Finally, a fairy came to you, Link! That's great news! I'm so happy for you! Now you're a true Kokiri, Link!" Link smiled sheepishly at that.

"Hello! My name is Navi!" Navi greeted.

"Hi!"

"We're kind of in a tight schedule right now. I'm guiding Link to the Great Deku Tree."

"Is that right? The Great Deku Tree has summoned him? It's quite an honor to talk to the Great Deku Tree! I'll wait for you here. Get going! Go see the Great Deku Tree!"

"Okay! I hope this doesn't take long!" Link replied and left. Unfortunately, there happened to be someone blocking his way as usual…

"Hey, you! 'Mr. No-Fairy'! What's your business with the Great Deku Tree?" it was Mido. "Without a fairy, you're not even a real man!"

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" Navi flew up in Mido's face. "The Great Deku has summoned Link! JUST LET US THROUGH!"

"What?! A fairy?! Say what? The Great Deku Tree actually summoned him?"

"That's right." Link nodded firmly.

"Whaaaaaaat?! Why would he summon you and not the great Mido?"

"Well, he would if you weren't acting like a big jerk."

"This isn't funny…" Mido muttered, crossing his arms. "I don't believe it! You aren't even fully equipped yet! How do you think you're going to help the Great Deku Tree without both a sword and shield ready?"

"Says the one who also doesn't have any equipment…" Link sweatdropped.

"What? ***sigh*** you're right – I don't have my equipment ready, but… If you want to pass through here, you should at least equip a sword and a shield! Sheesh!" Link's eye twitched before retorting:

"Fine! I will go find a sword and a shield! Just so you wait!"

"HA! Like that would ever happen." Mido scoffed as Link turned away, growling in frustration.

"Man, Mido always get in my nerves at the worst times possible…" he muttered.

"Chill out, Link. I'm sure the Great Deku Tree can wait a little bit." Navi said. "As I was searching for you, I heard that you can get a shield from that shop over there." she directed Link to the shop. "But I don't know where to find a sword yet…"

"Well, then I'll go for the shield first."

Link then went around to collect some Rupees and went into the shop to pay 40 of them to buy a Deku Shield. Now all that's left is a sword. After looking around the forest for a while, Link spotted a small hole on the wall at the Forest Training Center. He easily crawled through it thanks to his small size.

On the other side, he had to travel around a short maze with a giant boulder rolling around for some reason. Eventually, he came upon a tree stump with a treasure chest on it. He opens it up, and…

Da da da da!

You got the Kokiri Sword!

"That's a sword? It looks more like a knife due to its size." Navi pointed out.

"Oh whatever. Let's just go shove it and the shield right on Mido's face." Link smirked and walked back to the small hole. But before he could crawl through it, all of a sudden, the same golden gate from earlier opened up from behind him… and Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad came out of it.

"AAAAAHH!" they screamed.

"What the-… GAH!" Link turned around… only for the Mario cast to land on top of him.

 ***THUD!***

"Ouch…" Navi winced as the gate closed.

"Ow…" Luigi groaned, lifting his head. "Did she really have to shove us in there…?"

"Is everyone alright?" Mario asked.

"Yeah…" Toad mumbled.

"Uh, guys… I think we just landed on someone." Yoshi trailed, pointing down. The rest followed his pointing finger and were shocked to see that they landed right on top of a young blonde-haired boy wearing green clothes, so they quickly got off of him.

"Oh my, we're so sorry!" Peach apologized. "Are you okay?"

"Never…better…!" Link groaned as he got up.

"Oh, Link! I'm so glad you're not hurt!" Navi flew up to him before they both turned around to face the Mario cast. "And who are you all? You don't look like you're from here."

"No, we aren't." Mario shook his head. "By the way, I'm Mario."

"I'm Luigi, Mario's younger brother." Luigi said.

"I'm Yoshi!" Yoshi said.

"I'm Toad." Toad said.

"And I'm Peach." Peach said. "We all came from the Mushroom Kingdom, and I'm its princess."

"Mushroom…Kingdom?" Link raised an eyebrow. "Never heard of it."

"Hmm, that does sound other worldly…" Navi mused, flying closer to them. "And judging by their clothing and appearances, they do seem to be from another world."

"At least you believe us." Peach smiled. "Hold up! You still haven't said your names yet!"

"Oh, sorry! I'm Navi, a fairy!"

"I'm Link." Link added. "Nice to meet you all, I guess."

"Wait, if you're from another world, how did you get here?" Navi asked. Mario and his friends then explained everything that happened before they got here. Link and Navi were astonished after hearing their story.

"That's kind of freaky…" Link blinked. "That dream you mentioned? I had the exact same dream too."

"WHAT?!" the Mario cast flinched.

"Another one?!" Toad blinked.

"Is the number going to increase even more?" Yoshi wondered.

"Please, no. I'm starting to get freaked out by this…" Luigi trailed.

"You tell me." Link threw in. "I wonder what could this mean?"

" _Wait… The Great Deku Tree told me about five people from another world coming here too… Could these people be them…?_ " Navi thought. " _In that case…_ " she then spoke, "Maybe it's fate that we all bumped into each other."

"Well, we're only here to fulfill a task that a certain sorceress passed on to us." Toad said with a shrug. "Speaking of which, where are we anyways?"

"This is Kokiri Forest." Navi answered. "Anyways, we were about to go see the Great Deku Tree."

"The Great…WHAT Tree?!" Luigi blinked.

"Great Deku Tree. Why don't you come with us? That way we can show you!"

"Sounds like a good idea, Navi." Link said. "But first… I need to do something."

* * *

 _ **Seconds later…**_

"Eh, what's that?! Oh, you have a Deku Shield… And what's THAT?! IS THAT THE KOKIRI SWORD?!" Mido yelled.

"Yup. Told you I could do it." Link smirked.

"GOOD GRIEF! Well, even with all that stuff, a wimp is still a wimp, huh? I, the great Mido, will never accept you as one of us!"

" _Oh, put a sock in it!_ " Link thought bitterly.

"Shoot! How did you get to be the favorite of Saria and the Great Deku Tree? Huh?! Grumble…grumble…" Mido grumbled as he moved out of the way, not bothering to even look at the new faces standing alongside Link, being the Mario cast.

" _Well, maybe if you didn't have an ego as big as your head, maybe you would be more likable…_ " Link thought before motioning the Mario cast to come over.

They all went down the path leading to the Great Deku Tree, unaware that a great journey was about to unfold…

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **What do you think so far? Please review!**


	2. Inside the Deku Tree

**Here's the next chapter!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Inside the Deku Tree**

Down the path leading to the Great Deku Tree, Deku Babas suddenly sprouted from the ground and started snapping in the air, catching the group by surprise.

"What the heck are those?!" Toad asked.

"Deku Babas. Do not approach them or they'll snap at you." Navi warned as Link easily cut through them with his Kokiri Sword and grabbed some Deku Sticks they dropped.

"They sort of reminded me of Piranha Plants… And you know how much I hate Piranha Plants." Luigi grumbled.

They then kept walking until they saw the Great Deku Tree in front of them.

" _Is that a tree… with a face?_ " the Mario cast thought.

"Great Deku Tree…I'm back!" Navi exclaimed.

"Oh… Navi… Thou hast returned…" the Great Deku Tree spoke, catching the Mario cast by such surprise that they nearly stumbled backwards.

" _And it TALKS?!_ " they thought.

"Link… Mario… Luigi… Peach… Yoshi… Toad… Welcome…"

" _How did he know our names?!_ "

"Listen carefully to what I, the Deku Tree, am about to tell thee… Thy slumber these past moons must have been restless and full of nightmares… As the servants of evil gain strength, a vile climate pervades the land and causes nightmares to those sensitive to it… Verily, thou hast felt it…"

" _I guess?_ " the Mario cast shrugged mentally, still having no idea why these nightmares have also reached them.

"The time has come to test thy courage… I have been cursed… I need thee to break the curse with thy wisdom and courage. Dost thou have courage enough to undertake this task?"

" _How can we say no to someone who's been cursed?_ " the Mario cast thought and they all looked at Link, all having the same answer in mind. They gave each other a nod before Link answered for them:

"Yes."

With the answer, the Great Deku Tree opens up his 'mouth' as he spoke:

"Then enter, brave ones, and thou too, Navi… Navi the fairy… Thou must aid them…"

"Leave it to me, Great Deku Tree!" Navi replied. "Come on, everyone! Be brave! Let's go into the Great Deku Tree!"

Everyone nodded and walked into his mouth.

* * *

The inside of the Deku Tree was very wide in comparison to the outside. The interior was crammed with spider webs and parasitic creatures. The group looked around in awe as they walked inside the main chamber.

"So…this is what's inside of a tree?" Yoshi asked.

"That's good to know." Link said, unaware that he was walking towards a Deku Baba.

"Link, look out!" Navi called out as the Deku Baba lunges its head to snap at Link.

"AH!" Link jumped back just in time, but he ended up dropping his sword in the process.

"Blasted plant!" Mario exclaimed as he tosses a fireball from his palm at the Deku Baba to burn it down. Link and Navi were left in shock once they saw that.

"…Did you just shoot fire out of your hand?!" Link questioned.

Mario paused, realizing what he had done in front of Link and Navi and chuckled nervously, "Oh, whoops. I forgot to tell you that we also have powers."

"REALLY?!"

"Yep. I have fire powers, Luigi has fire and thunder powers, Peach can do magic, Yoshi has rainbow powers, and Toad has mushroom powers."

"That's so cool!" Navi squealed.

"We also have items called Power-Ups with us." Luigi added. "They grants us diverse abilities that can help us in any sort of situations."

"Wow… And these are all from your world?"

"Mmhm."

"Now I really wish that I could be able to see this Mushroom Kingdom someday." Link said, sheeting his sword back into the scabbard.

"Hey, guys! Come over here!" Toad called out, directing them to the huge circular spider web in the middle of the room on the floor. "There's something down here!"

"You know, I was wondering why is there a huge spider web here in the first place." Yoshi said as everyone looked down the web.

"It looks like there's a passage underneath it…" Peach inspected.

Mario made his hands burst with fire. "I'll burn it down!"

"Actually, I have a better idea." Link interfered as everyone looked at him climbing some vines. "We jump down!" he leaped off the edge and landed on the web… but it wasn't enough for it to snap.

"I think it would be much faster if I were to burn it down…" Mario sweatdropped.

"I have to agree with that." Navi threw in.

"Well I say we need to go higher." Link stated, climbing back up again.

"Fine, do what you want." Toad shrugged as the rest followed Link.

Up above, they watched Link climbing up more vines on the wall… only for a Skullwalltula to suddenly ram into him.

"AARGH!" he yelled, falling back down. "Where did that come from?!" he asked as the rest came over.

"That was a Skulltula." Navi informed. "Don't get too close or they'll chase after you and drop you down."

"You sure know a lot, Navi." Peach said.

"Well, the Great Deku Tree sent me for that purpose."

"Hey, what's in that treasure chest?" Luigi asked, pointing towards it. Link then stands up, walks towards the chest and opens it, pulling out… a map.

"Cool! A map of this place!" Link exclaimed. The Mario cast, however, looked dumbfounded.

"Who puts a map in a chest?" Yoshi questioned.

"I know, right? That doesn't make any sense!" Toad threw in. "What's next, finding keys?"

"Toad, don't jinx it!" Luigi warned. "You know the Author is watching us, right?"

"Anyways, how are we going to get rid of those things?" Mario pondered, looking at the Skullwalltulas.

"Everyone!" Link called out at the distance, stopping next to a door. "I found a door here! Let's see what's on the other side!" Link instantly went inside, but the Mario cast just stared at the door.

"Why is there a door inside a tree?" Yoshi asked.

"Nonsense, again…" Toad sighed, shaking his head. "Next thing you know, we'll be finding doors in trees like… I dunno, a forest full of tiny wood-like creatures wearing mask leaves or something." everyone stared at Toad with bewildered expressions.

"…Where in the world did you get all that from?!" Luigi blinked.

"You know, I have no idea. It just came into my head all of a sudden."

"Maybe it's best to stop questioning anything that's nonsense to us…" Mario sweatdropped. "We _are_ in a different world, after all."

Everyone had to agree with Mario, and at this moment, they saw a Deku Scrub running by as Link emerged out of the door.

"What took you all so long?" he asked.

The group then went inside the door Link just came out and into another one. The next room had a platform standing in midair for some reason and there was a chest on the other side. Link quickly jumped on to the platform… but it shook wildly before easily crumbling.

"WHOOOA!" Link yelled as he fell, but Toad made a mushroom sprout from underneath Link and when he landed on it, it sprung him up to the other side.

"Let's not get too excited." Toad said.

"What just happened?" Link asked.

"I just conjured a mushroom spring under you to give you a boost."

"Oh! Thanks for that." Link then walks over to the chest and opens it, pulling out the Fairy Slingshot with some Deku Seeds as ammo. "Nice!" he exclaimed and while he was testing out the new item by shooting a seed at a ladder, Yoshi caught glimpse of another chest located up a ledge next to Link.

Curious, Yoshi Flutter Jumps at the chest and opens it, revealing… a Recovery Heart.

"…Who puts a heart in a chest?" he questioned quietly so that the rest wouldn't hear him before he tossed the Heart aside, unaware of it landing right into Link, healing the injury he suffered back with the Skullwalltula.

" _Huh? That spider injury… it's healed somehow!_ " he thought before motioning everyone to climb the ladder and exit the room.

Thanks to the Slingshot, Link was able to defeat the Skullwalltulas by shooting seeds at them. After that, everyone climbed up, reaching a higher portion of the area, so Link was sure that jumping down from here would be enough to snap that large web.

However, before he could follow the Mario cast, who were all heading into another door, he was ambushed by Big Skulltulas dropping down from the ceiling.

"Yikes!" he flinched. "Navi, what are those?!"

"Big Skulltulas!" Navi replied. "Their backs are their weak spot!"

"That's enough good advice!"

With that, he was able to take care of the Big Skulltulas by stabbing their backs. At this moment, the Mario cast returned, with Mario holding a compass.

"Where did you get that?" Link asked.

"In that room over there." Mario pointed to the door he and his friends went through. "All we had to do was light a couple of torches."

"Hm, maybe that could be useful. Anyway, we should be high enough to snap that web."

Link then backs up, completely unaware of a remaining Big Skulltula coming down and making Luigi tense up just by its appearance.

"Link! Behind you!" Peach called out as the Big Skulltula was heading straight for Link.

"What-…" before he knew it, the Big Skulltula slammed into him, launching him off the platform. "AAAAAAAAHHH!"

"LINK!" the Mario cast cried out as they watched Link landing down on the web on his back, making it stretch out big time.

"I'm sure it'll hold." Navi speculated.

 ***SNAP!***

Unfortunately, she was proven to be wrong as the web actually snapped, sending Link at the bottom.

"…Or not." Navi sweatdropped.

 ***SPLASH!***

Fortunately, there was water below so it sort of softened our hero's fall. Link gets out of the water by crawling to the shore.

"Ooogh…" he groaned. "What is with me and spiders today?"

"INCOMIIIIING!" he suddenly heard Yoshi's voice as he looked up and saw the Mario cast coming down and falling into the water.

"Thank goodness there's water below." Navi remarked as the Mario cast got out of the water. "Let's continue on, shall we?"

They all nodded as they climbed up a ledge where there was a door that was blocked by a spider web, but Mario burnt it down and they went through. On the other side was a Deku Scrub who shot a Deku Nut at them, but Link reflected it back with his shield. Once it was hit, the Deku Scrub tried to run away, but the group caught it.

"Please forgive me! I'll never do it again!" it pleaded. "If you spare me, I'll teach you something cool. You will never beat my brothers up ahead unless you punish them in the proper order. The order is… 2 3 1. Twenty-three is number one!" it then ran off.

"Twenty-three is number one? That should be easier to remember." Luigi remarked as they went into the next door up ahead.

* * *

 _ **Later…**_

"Um… Did we just go in a full circle?" Yoshi asked as they soon found themselves back at the main area after going through a cycle of doors.

"Well, we did reach a portion of the area we couldn't reach before." Peach pointed out.

"And we have another spider web here." Toad pointed to the web on the ground.

After pushing a large block down the ledge, Link pulled out a Deku Stick, put it near a torch on the other side to light it, and then climbed back up to burn the spider web. Then they all jumped down, landing into the water below, thankful for the interior of the Deku Tree always having pools of water to soften their fall.

As soon as they got out of the water, the first thing that caught their eyes were three Deku Scrubs in front of them.

"…Twenty-three is number one…" Luigi recalled. "2-3-1… That's it! Link!"

"Got it!" Link nodded and did the exact code, first reflecting back the nut spat at him from the second Deku Scrub, then the third, and finally the first.

"ARGH!" the first Deku Scrub yelled. "How did you know our secret? How irritating! It's so annoying that I'm going to reveal the secret of Queen Gohma to you! In order to administer the coup de grâce to Queen Gohma, strike her while she's stunned. Oh, Queenie… Sorry about that!" all of the Deku Scrubs fled.

"I'll bet they'll be mad at their brother once they find out that he spat out the code for us." Toad grinned.

"I can totally imagine that." Link threw in before glancing at the newly opened door. "So this Queen Gohma is just up ahead, right?"

"One way to find out." Mario said as they went through the door, where they found themselves standing in a very dark room.

"Whoa… This place is dark…" Yoshi breathed.

"Watch where you all step." Navi warned. "We never know what will come out…"

They kept cautiously going forward until they reached a wide and circular chamber filled with more spider webs.

"Gee, don't you think that's enough of spider webs?" Toad questioned.

"You tell me…" Peach agreed.

"Hold up." Navi interfered, feeling tense. "I sense something in this room… Stay on guard, everyone."

The group braced themselves as told… when suddenly the door slammed shut from behind them.

"Hey! The door just closed!" Luigi exclaimed. "We're trapped!"

"Wait, shh!" Link shushed. "Do you all hear… something strange?"

Indeed: when the group stood quiet, they all started to hear strange scurrying noises echoing around the room.

Looking around to find the source, squinting their eyes to try to see better in the dark, the group looked up ahead and nearly freaked out by what they saw.

"W-What… IS that THING?!" Luigi panicked.

"Is that… supposed to be Gohma?" Yoshi wondered.

" **The stone and the star…"** Gohma caterwauled as she was munching the ground. **"Where are the stone and the star…?"**

" _What stone and star is she referring to?_ " Mario thought, tilting his head.

"Is she eating the… Great Deku Tree?!" Link exclaimed, seeing Gohma munching the wood below her.

Unfortunately, Link's exclaiming caught her attention as her glare shifts to the group.

" **Who are you, pests, interfering me like that?!"** she hissed. **"Shall I take a bite out of you all, as well?"**

"Everyone, look out!" Navi warned as Gohma raises one of her claws. Thankfully, the heroes dodged the attack and the claw slammed into the floor instead.

"Return the Great Deku Tree to normal!" Link growled, firing some seeds from his slingshot at Gohma, with Yoshi joining in by throwing eggs, Mario and Luigi by tossing fireballs, and Toad by tossing turnips. Unfortunately, all of these attacks were useless as they were not strong enough to pierce through Gohma's shell.

"It's no use, Link!" Yoshi exclaimed. "Her shell is too tough!"

"Yeah! We need a new strategy!" Toad added.

"EEEEEK!" they suddenly heard Peach's shriek as they turned around, and much to their horror, she was surrounded by Gohma Larvae that were slowly creeping towards her.

"Oh no! Peach!" Mario yelled, his heroic instincts kicking in as he rushes to save Peach by stomping on each Gohma Larva, unaware that he was stomping them in their eyes, defeating them.

"Phew… Thank you, Mario." Peach thanked.

"You're welcome."

"Wait a second… Big bro, how did you defeat those things so fast?" Luigi asked.

"I know why!" Navi came in, having noticed what exactly Mario did to defeat the Gohma Larvae. "He stomped them in the eye!"

"The eye… Navi, you're a genius!" Mario beamed. "Perhaps that's Gohma's weakness as well!"

"…Of course! I'll warn Link, Yoshi, and Toad right away!"

"Uh, you better do that fast…" Luigi trailed, pointing at where the addressed trio was.

"Oh no!" Peach gasped.

What was happening to them right now? As they were trying to fend Gohma away from them, they ended up backing up too much that they ended up getting stuck in the web on the wall.

"W-What?!" Toad stuttered, feeling the sticky web all over him. "Agh! We're stuck!"

"Guys…" Yoshi murmured, seeing Gohma getting closer to them.

"Ugh! Darn monster! Don't come any closer!" Link exclaimed, still firing seeds from his slingshot at Gohma.

"Uh oh! Let's hurry!" Navi hollered as Mario, Luigi, and Peach rushed to Link, Yoshi, and Toad. "Guys! Gohma's weakness is her eyeball! Aim for her eye!" she quickly informed the distressed trio.

They were quick to answer, aiming their respective projectile directly at Gohma's eye. Gohma cried in pain as she collapsed to the floor, exposing her bulging eyeball, signifying that she was stunned.

With that, Mario quickly burned the web trapping Link, Yoshi, and Toad before they all went to town, striking Gohma's eye. Gohma cried in agony before she dissolved into blue flames and disappearing from existence.

"That was a close one…" Link sighed in relief.

"You tell us…" Yoshi added.

Then, a blue light showed up next to them.

"Perhaps this will take us out!" Navi exclaimed as they all stepped into the light, taking them back outside right in front of the Great Deku Tree.

"Well done, brave ones…" the Great Deku Tree spoke. "Thou has verily demonstrated thy courage…" the group had proud looks on their faces. "I knew that thou wouldst be able to carry out my wishes… Now I have yet more to tell thee, wouldst thou listen…?" everyone nodded. "Good. Now…listen carefully… A wicked man of the desert cast this dreadful curse upon me…"

" _What?!_ " the heroes thought.

"This evil man ceaselessly uses his vile, sorcerous powers in his search for the Sacred Realm that is connected to Hyrule… For it is in that Sacred Realm that one will find the divine relic, the Triforce, which contains the essence of the gods…"

" _The Triforce…?_ "

"Before time began, before spirits and life existed… Three golden goddesses descended upon the chaos that was Hyrule… Din, the goddess of power… With her strong flaming arms, she cultivated the land and created the red earth. Nayru, the goddess of wisdom… Poured her wisdom onto the earth and gave the spirit of law to the world. Farore, the goddess of courage… With her rich soul, produced all life-forms who would uphold the law."

" _Wow…_ " the Mario cast thought in amazement.

"The three great goddesses, their labors completed, departed for the heavens. And golden sacred triangles remained at the point where the goddesses left the world. Since then, the sacred triangles have become the basis of our world's providence. And the resting place of the triangles has become the Sacred Realm."

Everyone was just amazed at this story, especially the Mario cast, as they never heard such a deep story as that one, and they were right now thinking about those three triangles, which they could assume it was the aforementioned Triforce.

"Thou must never allow the desert man in black armor to lay his hands on the sacred Triforce… Thou must never suffer that man, with his evil heart, to enter the Sacred Realm of legend… That evil man who cast the death curse upon me and sapped my power… Because of that curse, my end is nigh… Though your valiant efforts to break the curse were successful, I was doomed before you started…"

"W-What?!" Link cried, tears forming into his eyes. "That can't be! Don't die, Great Deku Tree!" the Mario cast glanced at the young boy with pity looks. "I and my new friends fought so hard! This can't be happening!"

"I'm terribly sorry, Link… I will pass away soon, but do not grieve for me… I have been able to tell you of these important matters… This is Hyrule's final hope… Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad… Go now to Hyrule Castle… There thou wilt surely meet the Princess of Destiny… The future depends upon thee… Thou art courageous… Navi the fairy… Help them to carry out my will…" he felt his end approaching. "I entreat thee… Navi… Good…bye…"

At this moment, the Great Deku Tree's trunk became dull grey while its leaves dried. The Great Deku Tree was no more… now just a dead tree. A cold, dead breeze was now blowing around the group as they just stood there, shocked and devastated for the wise forest guardian's passing.

"Great Deku Tree!" Navi cried, flying over to the Great Deku Tree. "I never got to thank you for all that you've done for me…"

" _Brave ones…"_ suddenly, the Great Deku Tree's words echoed around them. _"Take this stone and this star with thee, the two relics that man wanted so much that he cast the curse upon me… They're known as the Kokiri's Emerald and a Platinum Star… Now, I must part… Take care, youths…"_

Then, a green glow appeared in front of Link, along with a white glow appearing in front of the Mario cast. The green glow revealed its true form as a green and shiny stone shaped like the Kokiri symbol, while the white glow revealed as a Power Star, but colored platinum. The heroes looked at the two objects in awe before glancing back at the deceased tree with saddened looks. A single dry leaf fell off from one of the branches, signaling the forest guardian's last breath.

Link was absolutely devastated; besides Saria, the Great Deku Tree was the only one who was very dear and caring to him, even treating him as if he was his child. After all, this wise tree was the one who raised him in this forest ever since he was a baby. Now that he was long gone, not only was this forest left without a guardian, but that also meant the loss of one of Link's dearest companions, who was like a father to him…

Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad watched their newest friend crying and felt sorry for him. Despite not yet knowing how close Link and the Great Deku Tree were, they at least knew that the young boy really trusted the wise tree guardian. They were also worried about what would become of Kokiri Forest without a guardian, since the only residents they all saw in this place consisted of _children_.

"…Thank you, Great Deku Tree." Navi whispered. "We shall fulfill your will…" she flew back to the group. "Let's go to Hyrule Castle, everyone!" before leaving, she took one final glance at the Great Deku Tree. "Good-bye…Great Deku Tree…"

The Mario cast immediately followed Navi, but made sure to wait for Link. Link, who has stopped crying but still had his eyes shut, gave one last bow to the deceased forest guardian… before turning back and leaving, catching up with his new friends.

"We're so sorry this happened, Link…" Peach lamented. "I guess you and the Great Deku Tree were really close, right?"

" ***sniff*** he was the one who raised me here…" Link whimpered. "And I never got the chance to see my parents… I'm starting to even question myself if I am truly a Kokiri. Perhaps Mido might be right about me…"

Speaking of Mido, of course that little brat was still there to ruin the mood:

"Hey, Link! What did you do?! The Great Deku Tree… Did he…die?" if Link wasn't so somber right now, he would've yelled back at him. "How could you let a thing like that happen?! It's all your fault!" he then walked out of the way, and Link quickly rushed ahead, much to Navi and the Mario cast's surprise.

"Link, wait up!" Yoshi called out as they all went after him.

When Link reached the bridge connecting the woods to Hyrule Field, the rest of his friends finally managed to catch up with him.

"Link, what's gotten into you?" Luigi asked. Then it hit him, "…You're still sad that the Great Deku Tree died, right?"

"Yeah…" Link nodded.

"Listen, Link. We also don't have any parents." Mario spoke softly, placing his hand on Link's shoulder. "But unlike you, we all got over it very quickly, since we knew that mourning all the time isn't going to help. Life always changes for anyone, and people have no choice but to move forward. Otherwise, the past will consume and destroy you and you'll never grow up like this."

"He's absolutely right…" just then, they heard a voice from behind as they turned around. It was Saria! "So you're all going?"

"S… Saria…" Link whispered.

"Somehow, I knew…that you would leave the forest…someday, Link…"

"You know… I've always thought I was different from everyone. Like I'm from somewhere…"

"Oh, you knew that already? But that's OK, because we'll be friends forever…won't we?" she then takes out an ocarina. "I want you to have this ocarina… And to always remember me, I can teach you my favorite song."

Link took the ocarina Saria gave him, the Fairy Ocarina, as Saria took out her ocarina and played her song, Saria's Song, and Link followed suit, learning his first ocarina song.

"Thanks, Saria." Link smiled a bit. "By playing your song, I'll always remember you."

"You're welcome, Link." Saria replied. "I also hope you and your new friends come back to the forest to visit. Take good care of that ocarina for me…"

"I will… Goodbye…" Link solemnly said and took off running to the other side and Navi and the Mario cast went after him.

"Goodbye…" Saria replied sadly as a tear slid down her cheek.

* * *

 **(P.O.V. change)**

 _Oh-ho… It looks like the boy and his companions' great adventure has finally begun. The fate of the land of Hyrule rests in the hands of one young boy and five people from a different world. I wonder if they're up to the task?_

 _In honor of the Great Deku Tree, I will guide and protect you, Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad._

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **I couldn't help but make the Mario cast question the Zelda logic, since it works very differently than the Mario logic, right?**

 **Look at that! The Mario cast is also going to have their own plot coupons like Link (and it's something that will happen in almost all stories from this Saga)! Just like with the three Spiritual Stones, there are three Platinum Stars for them to collect, and luckily, they are obtained along with the stones. Why platinum, you may ask? We already had gold, silver, and bronze stars in the Mario series, so platinum is the only rare metal remaining!**

 **Finally, I decided to make Link learn Saria's Song early since I do not want to write the part where you have to return to the forest before heading to Death Mountain.**

 **Now our heroes are about to see Hyrule Field for the first time! Until the next chapter! Please review!**


	3. The Princess of Destiny

**This one turned out to be shorter than I expected...**

 **Well, enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The Princess of Destiny**

The group exited the woods for the first time and into the wide Hyrule Field. The field stretched as far as their eyes could see, with soft green grass covering the ground and dirt roads leading to the castle and some sort of ranch. The sky was clear blue, unlike the dull green sky in the forest since trees were obscuring it.

"Wow! It's so huge!" Mario exclaimed in amazement.

"I'll say." Link agreed. "I've always wondered what it was like out of Kokiri Forest."

"So you never left the forest? Why?" Peach asked.

"Because it is said that Kokiris might die if they leave the forest."

"Oh dear…"

"Well, you have us on your side." Yoshi smiled. "We'll definitely make sure you won't get killed!"

"Thanks, Yoshi." Link replied.

"Alright, let's not waste any time!" Navi interfered. "Let's head to the castle!"

So with that, they took off to Hyrule Town by following the dirt road. Although the Mario cast couldn't help but remember of something:

" _This castle… It looks similar to the one in my dream!_ " they thought each, having a flashback of the same location in their dream, as they passed by the drawbridge.

Then, they snapped out of their thought when they caught sight of a door leading inside of a building right next to the drawbridge.

"I wonder what's in here?" Link wondered as they all went inside… where they saw a lot of pots in the room.

"Golly! Just how many pots does this room need?!" Luigi questioned in surprise.

"…For some strange reason, I have a strong desire to destroy all of these…" Link breathed, unsheathing his sword.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Link?" Peach inquired. "They could belong to someone, and they could be value-…"

 ***CRACK!* *SMASH!***

"…-able." she finished as the Mario cast sweatdropped, watching Link destroy the pots like a maniac.

"Wow! Look at him go!" Navi, on the other hand, seems to be enjoying it.

"RAAAAAAAAH!" Link yelled while smashing the pots. Soon, the whole room was just covered in debris and green and blue Rupees.

"Okaaaay, I think that's enough…" Luigi trailed as Link was panting heavily while collecting all of the Rupees.

" ***pant* *pant*** Sorry about that. I don't know what came over me." Link apologized.

" _This has to be one of our Author's shenanigans, for sure._ " Toad thought as they exited the building.

They made it to the main square at the Market, and what a remarkable sight: houses everywhere, all sorts of people roaming around minding their own business, squeals of joy coming from children playing around… you name it. This place was definitely loud and noisy, in contrast to the silent and serene forest.

"This town sure is peaceful." Peach smiled, looking around. "And quite noisy too."

"Yeah, not even Toad Town is that noisy!" Toad exclaimed.

"Wish we could hang around here a bit, but we have something more important to do." Mario said.

"Yeah! We have a princess to meet!" Navi piped up.

"But, which way is the castle?" Yoshi wondered.

"Hey, do you hear… singing?" Link's ears twitched when he heard someone singing. He looked around for the source, and saw that it belonged to a young girl around his age with long ginger hair and wearing a long white dress. "Maybe we can ask her!" he exclaimed, directing to the girl.

The Mario cast nodded and they all went towards the singing girl.

"Hey, excuse me…" Link said to her.

"Huh? Oh!" the girl stopped singing and faced the group. "Can I help?"

"Do you know the way to the castle?"

"The castle? It's right over there, silly!" she giggled before pointing to the direction, which was revealed that she was standing right in front of the road leading to the castle.

"Oh." Link blinked. "Well, thanks anyway." he and his friends begin to leave.

"Wait!" the girl stopped them. "Your clothes… They're different…" she mused. " _And there's also two strange beings I've never seen before with them either!_ " she thought, referring to Yoshi and Toad. "You're not from around here, are you?"

"Um, well…" Link replied nervously after he and his friends exchanged glances. Then, the girl noticed Navi fluttering about and that's where it hit her:

"Ohh, you have a fairy! Then you must be from the forest!"

" _I guess so…?_ " the Mario cast thought, knowing that they're not exactly from the forest since they're from a different world, but they decided to stick with that fact in order to hide their true fact so the girl wouldn't think they were crazy.

"Nice to meet you all! My name is Malon! My dad owns Lon Lon Ranch!" the girl named Malon continued. "Dad went to the castle to deliver some milk, and he hasn't come back yet…"

"Why is that?" Link asked.

"I bet he fell asleep… AGAIN. But I can't go into the castle either because there are guards on patrol. I tried talking with them, but they wouldn't let me in!"

"Perhaps we can help you with that." Mario offered.

"You'll do this for me? Thank you so much! Here, take this." she hands the group a Cucco. "This little guy will definitely wake him up. Oh, and before you go, can I at least know your names?" the group told her their names. "Wow! What peculiar names! Tee hee! Well, I wish you luck!"

Everyone then took off to Hyrule Castle. The main road leading to it had two guards on patrol, so the group instead climbed some vines on the wall on the right. After avoiding some more guards around and finding an alternate entrance past the castle's gates, they swam in the moat, leading them to a man who dressed oddly similar to Mario snoozing next to some wooden crates, probably containing the milk he was supposed to deliver.

"Look at this guy, snoozing on the job." Toad sassed.

"This has to be Malon's father!" Navi confirmed.

"Then let's wake him up, shall we?" Link grinned, taking out the Cucco, and…

 ***COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOO!***

"GAH!" the man snapped awake. "What in tarnation? Can't a person get a little shut-eye around here?" he then noticed the group. "Oh, hello… and who might you be?"

"Are you the owner of Lon Lon Ranch, by any chance?" Link asked.

"Yep. I'm Talon. I went to the castle to deliver some milk, but I sat down here to rest, and I guess I fell asleep…"

"Um, you see… we came to inform you something. Your daughter was looking for you." Peach told.

"What?! Malon was looking for me? I'm gonna catch it from her now! I messed up bad, leaving Malon behind to wait for me! She's really gonna let me have it!" Talon then scurries off across the grounds, leaving the group in their dust, and they were already coughing.

"That… was the strangest thing I've ever seen… of all time." Link coughed.

"No kidding." Navi agreed. "I think I got dust in my wings…"

"We've seen stranger." Mario shrugged.

"Yep." Yoshi nodded.

They then leapt towards the narrow passageway in front of them and crawled into it, taking them to the castle's courtyard, where there were more guards walking around.

"So, we sneak around?" Luigi guessed.

"We have to." Mario replied.

Thankfully, they managed to sneak around the courtyard without being caught, and made to the garden of the castle.

* * *

The garden was quite pretty, with two flower beds on the left and right sides of the center, small cone-shaped trees, and blue banners decorating the walls. But what caught the group's attention the most was definitely the person up ahead peeking through a window in the back wall.

"Is that…?" Link whispered.

"She must be!" Navi exclaimed. "Let's go talk to her!"

The girl looking through the window looked like she had a distressed look on her face, until she heard footsteps from behind her. Puzzled, she turned around… and was quite shocked to see strangers into the garden.

"What?! Who?!" she questioned. "Who are you? How did you get past the guards?" they were about to respond to her, until she caught sight of Navi. "Oh? What's that? Is that… a fairy?!"

"Yep!" Navi chimed. "The name's Navi!"

" ***giggle*** Hello!" the girl giggled before turning her attention to the others and concluding, "If you do have a fairy… Then are you… Are you from the forest? Then…then…you wouldn't happen to have…the Spiritual Stone of the Forest and the first Platinum Star, would you?! Do you have them?"

"We do." Link nodded, pulling out the Kokiri's Emerald while Mario pulled out the Platinum Star.

"Just what I thought! Then you must be the ones I saw in my dream!"

" _There's a SEVENTH one?!_ " the group thought as Navi looked a bit…scared by this.

"I had a dream… In the dream, dark storm clouds were billowing over the land of Hyrule… But suddenly, a ray of light shot out of the forest, parted the clouds, and lit up the ground… The light turned into six figures holding a green and shining stone and a platinum star, followed by a fairy… I knew this was a prophecy that some people would come from the forest…"

"And you think those people were…?" Luigi started.

"Yes, I thought you might be the ones…" then, the girl realized something very important that she almost forgot; she haven't even said her name yet! "Oh, I'm sorry! I got carried away with my story and didn't even properly introduce myself!" with a polite bow, she spoke, "I am Zelda, Princess of Hyrule." now it was her turn to ask. "What are your names?"

"Link."

"Mario."

"Luigi."

"Peach."

"Yoshi!"

"Toad."

"Strange…" Zelda mused. "These names sound somehow…familiar." she decides to shake it off and continues, "OK then, Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad… I'm going to tell you the secret of the Sacred Realm that has been passed down by the Royal Family of Hyrule. Please keep this a secret from everyone…"

"We promise." Mario replied.

"Good! Anyway, the legend goes like this: The three goddesses hid the Triforce containing the power of the gods somewhere in Hyrule… the power to grant the wish of the one who holds the Triforce in his hands. If someone with a righteous heart makes a wish, it will lead Hyrule to a golden age of prosperity… If someone with an evil mind has his wish granted, the world would be consumed by evil… That is what has been foretold… So the ancient Sages built the Temple of Time to protect the Triforce from evil ones."

"…So are you saying that the Triforce is in the Sacred Realm, and the Temple of Time is the only way to gain access to it?" Yoshi guessed, trying to put the pieces together from the story he and the others just heard.

"That's right…" Zelda nodded. "The Temple of Time is the entrance through which you can enter the Sacred Realm from our world. But the entrance is sealed with a stone wall called the Door of Time. And, in order to open the door, it is said that you need to collect three Spiritual Stones and three Platinum Stars. Another thing you need…is the treasure that the Royal Family keeps along with this legend… The Ocarina of Time!" she shows said object to them.

" _That looks similar to Saria's ocarina…_ " Link thought as he and the others stared at the royal blue ocarina in awe.

"I forgot to tell you…" Zelda puts the ocarina away before directing to the window behind her. "I was spying through this window just now… The other element from my dream…the dark clouds… I believe they symbolize…that man in there!"

Link and his friends decided to look through the window with curiosity. At the other side of the glass, they saw a dark-skinned man with red hair and wearing dark armor bowing before to someone, possibly the king. Wait… didn't that description about the man seemed familiar? That's right; he was the same man our heroes saw in their dream!

"Can you see the man with the evil eyes?" Zelda asked. "That is Ganondorf, the leader of the Gerudo. They hail from the desert far to the west. Though he swears allegiance to my father, I am sure he is not sincere. The dark clouds that covered Hyrule in my dream… They must symbolize that man!"

It was at that moment that Ganondorf took a quick glance at the window, where at the other side, the heroes quickly put their heads down, even if it was a bit too late.

"What happened? Did he see you? Don't worry. He doesn't have any idea what we're planning…yet!" Zelda giggled mischievously.

"Have you at least told your father about your dream?" Peach asked. Zelda hung her head in shame before responding:

"…Yes. I told my father about my dream… However, he didn't believe it was a prophecy… But…I can sense that man's evil intentions! What Ganondorf is after must be nothing less than the Triforce of the Sacred Realm. He must have come to Hyrule to obtain it! And he wants to conquer Hyrule… No, the entire world!"

" _Yikes…_ " the heroes thought.

"Everyone… Now we are the only ones who can protect Hyrule! You believe in all of this, don't you?!"

"Of course we do!" Link replied firmly. "That man's evil power killed the Great Deku Tree, after all!"

"Yeah!" Toad threw in.

"Thank you!" Zelda beamed, but she gets tense again. "I…I am afraid… I have a feeling that man is going to destroy Hyrule. He has such terrifying power! But it's fortunate that you have come… We must not let Ganondorf get the Triforce! I will protect the Ocarina of Time with all my power! He shall not have it! You all go find the other two Spiritual Stones and Platinum Stars! Let's get the Triforce before Ganondorf does…and then defeat him!" she then pulls out a piece of paper and hands it to them. "One more thing… Take this letter… I'm sure it will be helpful to you."

Link takes the letter and puts it into his pocket.

"My attendant will guide you out of the castle. Don't be afraid to talk to her." Zelda said. "Good luck to you all…"

They turned around to see a tall strong woman walking up to them as they walked to her.

"I am Impa of the Sheikah." she spoke. "I am responsible for protecting Princess Zelda. Everything is exactly as the princess foretold. You all are courageous… You are heading out on a big, new adventure, aren't you?"

"Yeah." Link nodded.

"My role in the princess's dream was to teach a melody to the ones from the forest. This is an ancient melody passed down by the Royal Family. I have played this song for Princess Zelda as a lullaby ever since she was a baby… There is mysterious power in these notes. Now listen carefully…" Impa then puts two fingers in her mouth and begin to whistle Zelda's Lullaby.

Link followed suit, playing on his ocarina. Thus, he learned his second ocarina song.

"Good. Now, let me lead you all out of the castle." Impa said.

* * *

 _ **Later…**_

The group and Impa were now standing at Hyrule Field, with Impa directing them to the large mountain at the distance.

"Brave lads… We must protect this beautiful land of Hyrule! Take a good look at that mountain. That is Death Mountain, home of the Gorons. They hold the Spiritual Stone of Fire and the second Platinum Star."

" _Well, at least we got our next destination settled._ " the group thought as Impa continued:

"At the foot of Death Mountain, you will find my village, Kakariko. That is where I was born and raised. You should talk to some of the villagers there before you go up Death Mountain."

"Got it." Mario nodded.

"And one more thing. The song I just taught you has some mysterious power. Only Royal Family members are allowed to learn this song. Remember, it will help to prove your connection with the Royal Family. The princess is waiting for you to return to the castle with the stones and stars. All right. We're counting on you!"

After that, Impa tosses a Deku Nut near the group and vanishes, much to their surprise.

"…How did she do that?" Luigi asked.

"Who knows?" Toad shrugged. "Let's just head to Death Mountain."

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **I decided to skip Kaepora Gaebora's encounters since I want to give him a much better role in this story than just give obvious informations. Also, am I the only one who loves to go into that building filled with pots every time I first enter Hyrule Town?**

 **Now our heroes' journey begins for real! See you at the next chapter! Please review!**


	4. To Death Mountain!

**Had some bad weather trouble yesterday, but I at least finished this chapter!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: To Death Mountain!**

Kakariko Village is said to have been founded by the Sheikah tribe, who were attendants that serve the Royal Family of Hyrule, and it used to be their village exclusively before Impa, the last surviving member of said tribe since it was now extinct, decided to open up the village to the rest of the people. This place is still an odd little burgh with colorful citizens as of today.

"So this is Kakariko Village…" Navi looked around. "Something about this place is relaxing, I don't know why."

"I'm actually having the same feeling, too." Yoshi threw in.

"Well anyway, let's search for the entrance to Death Mountain." Mario said.

"Right. I'll go talk to the villagers." Link offered.

As Link went off to speak with some villagers about Death Mountain, the Mario cast encountered a distressed woman near a chicken coop. She requested them to gather up her Cuccos that flew off, so by splitting up, they managed to gather them all up and dropping them off into the chicken coop. Some of the locations they found the Cuccos were rather bizarre, such as Toad finding one inside… a wooden crate (in truth, he accidentally rolled into it).

The woman thanked them for reuniting all of her Cuccos and rewarded them with a bottle filled with red liquid, said to have healing properties. That was a Red Potion.

The group thanked her, and just this exact time, Link and Navi had returned.

"How did it go?" Peach asked.

"Eh, they all said the exact same thing." Link replied with a shrug before noticing a path from behind him. "Say, where does this passage leads us to?" he wondered as they all walked to it. "Does it leads us to Death Mountain?" and when they reached the end of it… it led them to the Graveyard.

"Nope, just a graveyard." Toad shook his head.

"G-Graveyard?!" Luigi flinched, seemed to be a bit scared. The reason why he flinched like that? For he knew one thing that loves to haunt graveyards.

Ghosts. Aka, one of his biggest fears. He paled up just thinking about it.

"C-Can we go b-back now…?" Luigi stuttered. "T-This isn't the way to D-Death Mountain, so…"

"I kind of want to check this place out." Link insisted as they walked around the graveyard, with Luigi of course walking cautiously while frowning and shaking in fear a little compared to everyone else.

Link got curious about all those gravestones and decided to pull them. One of them held a deep hole with a treasure chest inside. He opens it up, revealing a Hylian Shield! Except that once he tried it on… it was a bit too big on him. It was a bit heavy too, making him unable to pull it out for defense.

"I think it's a bit too big for you, Link…" Navi commented.

"You tell me." Link replied unamused.

"Hey, at least you can still carry it, right?" Yoshi asked. "Who knows? It might be useful in the future!"

"Maybe you're right."

They kept walking until they spotted a large gravestone. There was a peculiar symbol depicting three triangles on the ground at the front of the gravestone too.

" _This symbol looks similar to the Royal Family's symbol… That's it!_ " Link thought before pulling out his ocarina and playing Zelda's Lullaby.

All of a sudden, it began to rain in the graveyard, and before the group even knew it, a lightning bolt out of nowhere crashed right into the gravestone, knocking all of them backwards as they screamed. A hole in the ground was now replacing where the gravestone once stood.

"How in the world does all of this work?!" Toad questioned.

"…Magic?" Yoshi guessed.

"Well, Impa did say that there are mysterious powers in this melody." Peach recalled. "So that guess wasn't that absurd." everyone walked towards the hole.

"A-Are you sure this is s-safe?" Luigi stuttered.

"There's no way I'm missing out on this golden opportunity!" Link exclaimed. "Let's go!" he immediately went into the hole. The Mario cast except Luigi shrugged to each other before following suit. Luigi gulped in fear before leaping into the hole as well.

They were all now in the Royal Family's Tomb, where the first thing they encountered were a few Keese in a room filled with piles of bones and skulls. Link shot at all of these small bats with his slingshot, causing a door to open. On the other side, they noticed some ugly ReDeads just standing there, not moving at all.

"Oh, they're ugly…" Link grimaced as he and the others quickly made their way around them and not stepping into the green pools while Mario was guiding Luigi, who had his eyes closed.

At the end of the tomb was a stone wall with some sort of inscription on it.

"This poem is dedicated to the memory of the dearly departed members of the Royal Family." Navi read. "The rising sun will eventually set. A newborn's life will fade. From sun to moon, moon to sun… Give peaceful rest to the living dead."

"Well, that's interesting." Link said. "Huh?" he noticed something on the bottom of the stone. "Navi, something else is inscribed on the tombstone…"

"Where? Over there?" Navi flew down to take a closer look. "Oh! It's the secret melody of the Composer Brothers!"

Link was about to take out his ocarina… when suddenly they all heard the sounds of moans and turned around to see the ReDeads they saw earlier slowly walking towards them.

"Oh, crap!" Link flinched. "What now?!"

"You figure out that song, Link!" Mario exclaimed. "We'll take care of them!"

"Got it!"

With that, the Mario cast charged towards the ReDeads… only for them to release their terrifying shrieks, paralyzing our heroes in place.

"W-What's going on?! I can't move!" Mario panicked.

"Those are ReDeads!" Navi warned. "They can paralyze you in place if you get too close to them!"

"Oh, now we've done it!" Toad grimaced, as the ReDeads were getting dangerously closer to them.

"L-Link…! H-Hurry!" Luigi stuttered as he literally started petrifying in fear.

"Oh, not at this time!" Mario exclaimed, seeing what has happened to his younger brother.

Meanwhile, Link was trying out a few notes on his ocarina until he finally gets the song correctly, and he eventually played the Sun's Song.

"Finally!" he exclaimed. Suddenly, he heard groans from behind him along with what sounds like a flesh-like noise. "What was that?" he wondered and exited the room, finding out that the ReDeads had been frozen in place and the Mario cast was able to move again. Well… save that for Luigi, who was now a stone statue. "Uh… What happened to Luigi?"

"He literally petrified in fear." Mario spoke unamused, in which Link could tell that apparently this wasn't the first time this has happened. "But let's hurry and get the hell out of here!"

Everyone immediately agreed and rushed out of the tomb, with Mario dragging his petrified brother by his arm.

Once outside, Mario let go of Luigi and everyone just stared at the latter.

"How are we going to get him out of this?" Link asked.

"Just leave this to me." Mario said, taking out his hammer and whacking the Luigi statue hard enough to shatter him out of his rocky shell.

"Mama mia… That was scary…" he groaned before sighing in relief. "Thanks for getting me out of that scary place, guys…"

"No problem." Link replied. "Although it seems you're afraid of undead creatures."

"Actually, I'm afraid of ghosts and other creepy things…" Luigi admitted with a frown.

"Oh, I see it now…" Link frowned.

"My brother always had this trauma ever since we were little." Mario spoke up, mirroring Link's expression. "So that's why I always make sure that nothing bad happens to him. And to make matters worse, there were two times that I ended up getting captured and secured in two different haunted mansions so Luigi had no choice but to save me, and since they were filled with ghosts, that obviously didn't help."

"Oh dear…" Navi whispered. "I shudder to imagine how many places like this we might end up encountering in our journey that might traumatize Luigi even more…"

"Don't worry too much about me, Navi." Luigi assured. "Sometimes I can hold on to my fear."

"That's right. That's how he was able to save me twice." Mario smiled. "Now let's get to Death Mountain already."

Everyone nodded and walked off, making their way to the upper levels of Kakariko Village, where there was a closed gate and a guard was securing it, not letting them pass through. That is, until Link showed him Princess Zelda's Letter.

"Oh, this is… This is surely Princess Zelda's handwriting! Well, let's see… Hmmm… OK…" the guard said, taking the letter and reading it: "These are Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad… They are under my orders to save Hyrule." however, the guard didn't take what this letter said too seriously. "Wah ha ha ha hah! What kind of funny game has our princess come up with now?!"

" _Of course he wouldn't believe it…_ " the heroes thought with annoyed looks on their faces.

"OK, OK, all right. You can go now… Just be careful, Mrs. and Ms. Heroes! Wah hah ha ha hah!" he then opens the gate and the heroes went through.

* * *

Death Mountain was a perilous volcanic peak. This once-active volcano hasn't blown its top in ages, but the low rumble of angry lava reminds the people who call it home, the Gorons, that nothing sleeps forever.

"Given this is a mountain, we'll have a lot of walking to do." Navi told everyone. "Let's go!"

They moved on, taking out a few Tektites in the process and also had to avoid some falling boulders. Now they know why this place was called Death Mountain, because it really does its best to keep outsiders away.

Eventually, they made to a sealed cavern on a wall, where they were already tired after climbing so much.

" ***pant* *pant*** how much more do we have to walk…?" Link panted, leaning on the wall.

"I need a rest…" Luigi groaned, sitting on a nearby 'rock', when… "WAH!" in an instant, the 'rock' suddenly stood up, flipping Luigi over onto his back.

"Hey, this is unusual." the creature who was previously the 'rock' spoke up as it was getting up. "Oh look! Visitors!" he spotted the gang.

"Who… Who are you?!" Luigi blinked.

"I am one of the Gorons, the stone-eating people who live on Death Mountain."

"Oh, so you're a Goron?" Yoshi tilted his head in curiosity.

"Yes. Anyway, look at that huge boulder over there!" he directed to the sealed cavern.

"What's so special about it?" Link asked.

"It blocks the entrance to Dodongo's Cavern, which was once a very important place for us Gorons… But one day, many Dodongos suddenly appeared inside the cavern. It became a very dangerous place! On top of that, a Gerudo in black armor used his magic to seal the entrance with that boulder!"

" _Ganondorf…_ " the group thought upon hearing the words 'Gerudo in black armor'. " _So he was here already…_ "

"Anyhoo, if you want to hear more Goron gossip, head up to our city! Goron City is just a little way up the trail. It won't take much longer to get there, even on foot."

" _Well, at least it's not that high._ "

Despite still feeling tired, the heroes had the strength to reach the place that Goron mentioned: Goron City.

* * *

Goron City is the seat of power for the Goron people, always led by a chief. An intimate part of the Death Mountain ecosystem, Goron City has recently fallen on hard times due to a disruption in the Goron food supply.

"Is this the place?" Peach wondered. Mario noticed a sign and walked over to it.

"Welcome to Goron City." he read. "…This is a city?"

"Looks more like an underground cave to me." Toad said.

They then casually walked around this so-called city, passing by Gorons, some lamenting their lack of food, while others were preoccupied about their chief:

"Oh…I'm so hungry…"

"If this problem isn't fixed, we're in danger of extinction!"

"I don't want to die like this!"

"I'm more worried about Big Brother…"

"Too bad he's on a bad mood right now. And you know how he acts when he's like that…"

"Hey, fear not! I know his SECRET."

That last quote caught the attention of the heroes as they carefully listened.

"REALLY?! What is it?!"

"He may not look like the type, but Big Brother loves to dance! If he gets in a rhythm, he'll surely…"

"What kind of rhythm you're talking about?"

"I remember Big Brother used to always listen to the music that comes from the forest…"

That perked the heroes' eyes and eyebrows up before they grinned to each other, knowing exactly what music that Goron was talking about.

"Too bad we're not the forest music type… I wish someone could help us!"

That's where the heroes decided to get their attention by coming out of their hiding spot.

"Excuse me." Link said. "Who's this 'Big Brother' you mentioned?"

"That's our chief, Darunia." one of the Gorons replied. "He has shut himself up in his room saying, 'I will wait in here for the Royal Family's messengers!' Say, are you said messengers? If you were, you would have some kind of proof."

"We definitely have." Link grinned, taking out his ocarina and playing Zelda's Lullaby on it. Eventually, the locked door leading to Darunia's room opened up, much to the Gorons' surprise.

"Oh! You ARE the messengers! Good! Go on ahead!" the Goron exclaimed.

The heroes thanked him and walked on in the room, seeing Darunia minding his own business.

"What the heck! Who are you?!" he asked, not expecting to see strangers into his room. "When I heard the song of the Royal Family, I expected their messengers have arrived, but…why would the Royal Family send measly CHILDREN instead?!"

" _We're not children, you know?_ " the Mario cast thought, seeming a bit offended by Darunia's comment.

"Has Darunia, the big boss of the Gorons, really lost so much status to be treated like this by his Sworn Brother, the king? Now I'm REALLY angry! Get out of my face!"

"Whoa, hold on!" Toad interfered, putting his hands in front of him. "Just why are you such in a bad mood, anyways?"

"I'll tell you why! Ancient creatures have infested Dodongo's Cavern! We've had a poor harvest of our special crop, Bomb Flowers! Starvation and hunger because of the rock shortage! But… This is a Goron problem! We don't need any help from strangers! Now scram!"

Darunia then startled them by punching a rocky wall and pulling out a rock to eat it, but he spat it out in disgust.

"Ack! These taste horrible!" he yelled.

With Darunia distracted, the heroes gathered up in a circle.

"What do we do now?" Peach asked.

"Don't worry, everyone. I got an idea." Link smirked. "Remember what that Goron said previously? Perhaps my friend's song might brighten up the mood in here!" he takes out his ocarina and walks towards Darunia. "Hey, Darunia! Are you a fan of this song?" he plays Saria's Song on his ocarina.

In an instant, Darunia stopped what he was doing… and suddenly began to dance bizarrely with a huge smile of his face. The Mario cast just stared at him in complete bewilderment.

"What… the heck…" Toad deadpanned.

"That's just wrong…" Mario blinked.

"What am I even looking at?!" Luigi questioned.

"He's enjoying it!" Navi beamed. "Keep it up, Link!" Link nodded, opening up one eye while playing the song.

"Oh! Oh-oh! C'mon! Come on! Come on! Come on! HOT! What a hot beat! WHOOOOAH! YEEEEAH! YAHOOO!" Darunia yelled in excitement during his dancing. Soon, Link stops playing the song and Darunia stops dancing. "Heeey! What a nice tune! Just like that, my depression is all gone! Something just came over me! I suddenly wanted to dance like crazy!"

"You don't say…" Yoshi deadpanned.

"Anyways, I am Darunia, big boss of the Gorons! Was there something you wanted to ask me about?"

"We're looking for the Spiritual Stone of Fire and a Platinum Star." Link said. "We assume you have it."

"What? You want the Spiritual Stone of Fire and the Platinum Star too? The Spiritual Stone of Fire, also known as the Goron's Ruby, is our race's hidden treasure… As well as the Platinum Star. But hold on – I'm not going to give them to you that easily. If you want them so badly… Why don't you go destroy the monsters inside of Dodongo's Cavern to prove yourselves you're tough as us?"

"We can take care of that." Mario grinned. "After that, you can give us the Spiritual Stone and the Platinum Star in exchange."

"It's a deal! Actually, I have something for you. I'm not really giving you these in return for anything, but take them anyway." he gave them bracelets… well, actually… he forced them on their wrists. "These are Goron Bracelets. They grant you strength to pull out Bomb Flowers. The entrance to Dodongo's Cavern is blocked off by a large boulder, so you need a Bomb Flower to blow it up."

"Thanks!" Link replied. "We won't let you and your tribe down, Darunia!" he and the others walked off.

Outside, they spotted a Bomb Flower up ahead. Link picked it up and tossed it down, getting the aim right on his first try. Eventually, the Bomb Flower explodes, destroying the boulder blocking off the cavern's entrance… but the explosion also knocked down a sign nearby.

"Oops…" Link trailed.

"Oh, who cares? We don't even need that sign anyways." Toad shrugged.

"Well then, off we go into Dodongo's Cavern!" Navi exclaimed as they all leapt down to the entrance and went inside.

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Leave it to Luigi to have all of the butt-monkey moments as usual. Never gets old, I guess. ;P**

 **Darunia dancing to Saria's Song is definitely one of the most memorable moments in this game. It even became his victory animation in Hyrule Warriors!**

 **Next up, Dodongo's Cavern! Until then! Please review!**


	5. Dodongo's Cavern

**Sorry it took a while, but here it is!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Dodongo's Cavern**

After blowing down another wall of rocks, the heroes arrived into Dodongo's Cavern. Everything in this dangerous cavern seemed to glow an angry red, with the main chamber stretching back hundreds of meters. Hot steam shrouded everything, including the tall cracks that loomed every few feet and the blood-red lava that seeped through the floor at the center.

"Golly, I'm frying like an egg in here!" Luigi exclaimed, already starting to sweat.

"No kidding." Mario threw in. "Let's get rid of the monsters in this cave quickly so we can get the stone and the star."

"Speaking of which, where are the monsters?" Link asked. "I don't see any in here." he and the others jumped to the middle platform on the center, where a Beamos ended up spotting them.

"Look out!" Navi called out as the Beamos started charging its laser before firing it at them, but they avoided it.

"How do we get rid of this thing?" Toad asked.

"That's a Beamos. Only an explosion can destroy it."

"Explosion? In that case…" Yoshi took out an Egg Bomb. "Take this!" he tosses it at the Beamos, which destroyed it instantly.

"Where did you get that egg from?" Link asked. "Also, did it just explode?!"

"That was an Egg Bomb. I happen to carry a plenty of those with me. Just for an addition, I can also lay eggs when I swallow an enemy."

"That's interesting." Navi said as Peach went to the left and somehow pulled out a Bob-omb from the ground and used it to blow up a wall concealing a treasure chest. She opens it, obtaining the map of this dungeon.

"Guys, I found the map!" she called out.

"Good! That should make navigating this place much easier now." Mario said.

They then went to the right side, where Link blew up a wall with a Bomb Flower, leading them access to a corridor. Just then, Baby Dodongos suddenly popped out of the ground and attempted to slither after the group. The heroes took care of them easily, but their bodies suddenly began to flash red.

"Stay back!" Navi warned. Everyone did as told before the Baby Dodongos exploded.

"So these lizards are basically ticking-time bombs." Toad remarked.

"Correct. They were Baby Dodongos. I shudder to imagine what their mother or father would be like…"

"I bet it's humongous." Link blurted.

" _Why do I have a feeling Link just jinxed it…?_ " the Mario cast thought before moving on.

Up ahead, Link just pushed one of the Armos statues onto a button on the floor to open the next door. On the other side, they found themselves standing in what seemed to be an arena-like place.

All of a sudden, they heard screeching as two Lizalfos dropped down into the arena.

"L-Lizard monsters?!" Luigi flinched.

"Lizalfos!" Navi exclaimed, as the group got ready.

Link ducked in order to let his Hylian Shield block a Lizalfos attacking him and then returned the favor with his sword, only for it to block the attack before swinging its tail at him, knocking him over. Mario quickly came over for backup and tossed a fireball at the Lizalfos' face, forcing it to jump away, but Luigi came in while doing an uppercut with his hammer, sending the Lizalfos into the air. While the Lizalfos was in the air, Yoshi Flutter Jumps to it and Yoshi Bombs it to the ground where Mario defeats it with a fiery punch.

Toad blocked the other Lizalfos' attack by casting a barrier of mushroom spores in front of him and then countered with a headbutt, but the Lizalfos retaliated and slashed him, only for Peach to use Peach Bomber at it before its attack could hit Toad to send it away.

Link recovered from the tail attack the other Lizalfos did to him just in time as the Lizalfos Peach and Toad were battling with to land right next to him. With a smirk, Link plants his sword into the Lizalfos' chest before it could even have a chance to recover to defeat it. However, there happened to be a scratch on his leg where the Lizalfos swung its tail.

"You okay?" Mario asked.

"Just a little scratch here, but nothing too serious." Link answered.

"A scratch? Can I see it?" Peach requested as Link shows it to her. "I can heal it for you, if that makes you feel better."

"…You can do that?"

"My Heart Power grants me healing powers. Now hold still." Peach places her hand on Link's scratch as it glowed pink. Once the glow faded, Peach removes her hand, and the scratch was completely gone.

"Wow…" Link was astonished. "Since when do you guys have all these unique powers?"

"You know, we actually have no idea." Toad shrugged. "Almost everyone in the Mushroom World are gifted with powers, that's all."

"You guys are just filled with surprises!" Navi exclaimed before they went into another door, taking them to a dark tunnel.

Feeling footsteps, the group pressed on, and it turns out that the source of these footsteps belonged to none other than a Dodongo.

"Watch out! That's a Dodongo!" Navi informed. "The only way to beat it is by hitting its tail, but careful of its fire breath!"

Speaking of that, the Dodongo instantly tried to breathe fire at them, but they just circled around it to avoid the breath and Link slashes its tail, making sure he and the others move away from this large lizard before the explosion it left behind would hit them.

They decided to dispatch the remaining two Dodongos in this tunnel and then Link took out a Deku Stick to light the other torches. Doing so removed the bars blocking a door and they went inside, only to go back to the same main chamber.

"You know, I was wondering if we were going in one huge circle again just like back in the Deku Tree." Yoshi remarked while looking at the Dungeon Map as Link stepped on a button to open up a new door at the chamber and they went through it.

At the other side, there was a bunch of Bomb Flowers placed next to each other in the middle of the room, but there was also a cracked wall on the left side. The Mario cast decided to check out what's behind the wall while Link plucked out a Bomb Flower and tossed it at the row of Bomb Flowers, causing a lot of explosions that blocked the sound of another bomb explosion, which happened to be Peach tossing a Bob-omb at the cracked wall.

With all the Bomb Flowers exploding, platforms fell down that made steps up the upper floor of the dungeon.

"Awesome." Link grinned and then saw the Mario cast coming back with a compass being held by Toad. "Oh, you guys found a compass behind that wall?"

"Yeah… but it was guarded by a statue that suddenly came alive and I even freaked out about it." Luigi murmured.

"Thankfully, Yoshi took care of it with an Egg Bomb and we had to run away from it since it was also a ticking-time bomb." Mario added.

"And during that, I reached for the chest and got the compass." Toad finished.

"This place sure has a lot of ticking-time bomb monsters…" Navi remarked.

"…You guys were attacked by a statue coming alive? I'll believe you when I see it." Link said as they went up the stairs to go inside another room.

In the next room, Link took out the Fire Keese with his slingshot and, noticing a button above the platform in the middle, he went towards one of the Armos statue… only for it to come to life.

"What the?!" Link flinched.

"An Armos!" Navi shouted.

"Now you believe us?!" Luigi inquired as Yoshi tossed an Egg Bomb at the statue before they all ran away from it until it exploded.

"Yes… I totally believe you now!" Link replied, still trying to comprehend that a statue that he once pushed just tried to kill them hadn't Yoshi acted. They then pushed the button and went on through.

The door took them back again at the main chamber, only that they were now standing on a wooden bridge. They crossed it as Link was taking care of the Fire Keese, and up ahead, they found themselves in a room filled with Blade Traps, but they didn't spot those just yet.

"I can see a cracked wall over there." Peach pointed out. "It should lead us to where we're going to." she looks at the map.

"Be careful in this room, everyone." Navi warned. "You never know what will be around the corner in these narrow paths…"

"The corner?" Luigi tilted his head before deciding to peek at one of the corners to see a Blade Trap at the end of the narrow path. "Uh, guys…? What's that?" everyone peeked there as well to see the Blade Trap.

"I knew it… A Blade Trap." Navi said. "Careful not to get hit by it!"

There was a block right in front of them a few feet away, so they quickly sprinted forward in order to avoid the Blade Trap and pulled the block back before climbing on it to reach a pillar. While Link was opening a small chest nearby to get a Red Rupee from it, Peach tossed a Bob-omb at the cracked wall to blow it up and they went on through.

* * *

 _ **Later…**_

The heroes went through a couple more doors, eventually going in a full circle just to reach a treasure chest in the same maze-like room they were before the time-skip above. The chest had a Bomb Bag inside.

"Cool! Now I can store up bombs as much as I like!" Link exclaimed.

"Yeah! What a lucky guy you are, Link!" Navi beamed as Link gave a thumbs up to her.

They then went back to the main chamber, where they spotted a stone tablet near the huge Dodongo skull.

"Giant dead Dodongo… When it sees red, a new way to go will be open." Mario read. "What does that mean?"

Link took a good look at the Dodongo skull and at the gap on the wooden bridge; that gave him an idea.

"I have an idea." he said as he walked to the gap and dropped a bomb there, letting it fall into the Dodongo skull's eye. Once the bomb exploded, the eye turned red. "Aha!"

"Oh, so that's what it meant." Toad said as Link dropped a bomb on the other gap to turn the other eye red. Eventually, the Dodongo skull's jaw opens up, revealing a doorway inside.

They went down and entered the doorway, noticing a barred door on the left side and a route that led to a block. The heroes went into the route and reached the block and, noticing a hole on the ground in the middle of the room, they pushed the block into it, unlocking the barred door.

On the other side, the room was completely empty, but there was a breakable patch on the floor, so Link placed a bomb there to create a hole and they all jumped in it, landing in another arena surrounded by lava in the center, but there was a platform over the lava as well.

Suddenly, the whole place begins to rumble followed by loud footsteps from behind them as they braced themselves cautiously. They turned around to see a humongous Dodongo standing there before roaring loudly at them. They just encountered King Dodongo, the Infernal Dinosaur.

"I-It's huge!" Luigi flinched.

"How are we supposed to combat that?!" Link questioned.

It was then that King Dodongo curls up its body, ready to roll into the group.

"Watch out! It's about to roll over you guys!" Navi warned.

"RUN!" Toad yelled as everyone began to run away from the rolling King Dodongo. After it stopped rolling, it then opens up its huge mouth to breathe fire at them.

"It's going to breathe fire at us!" Peach shouted horrified.

"Quick! To the platform!" Mario hollered as the group leapt to the platform over the lava just in time as King Dodongo unleashed its fiery breath, but it turned out to be more of a long flamethrower than what anyone would expect. Thank the goddesses that the heroes opted for jumping on the platform.

"Fire breather…" Link whispered as they saw King Dodongo roaring at them, but not even trying to go after them since they were out of its reach.

"He might be huge, but not very smart…" Yoshi speculated. "Link, do you have any of your weapons that might work against it?"

"Well, the only weapons I have are a sword, shield, slingshot, and bombs." Link answered. "I highly doubt my first three weapons will work-…" then it hit him. "Wait… That's it! Maybe bombs might work! Yoshi, you're a genius!"

"…I am?"

"Hey, Navi! Do you have an idea about how I should use bombs against it?" Link asked his fairy companion.

"Well… I have one, but it might be dangerous." Navi said. "Try to get him to eat it. Think you can do that?"

"Yeah, I think I can manage that. Thanks, Navi."

"Be careful, Link!"

"Uh, guys?" Luigi trailed. "I think it's about to breathe another flamethrower at us!"

King Dodongo, who was starting to lose patience about our heroes just standing still on the lonely platform on the lava, decided to once again open up its mouth to breathe fire at them. Link saw this as an opportunity and quickly pulled out a bomb and leapt towards the huge dinosaur.

"Hey, you big salamander, let's see how you like… a mouthful of THIS!" Link yelled while tossing the bomb right into King Dodongo's mouth. It swallowed it, of course, but the moment the bomb exploded, so did King Dodongo as well as it let out a roar of agony before all of its flesh flew all over the place. "Score!" Link exclaimed while fist pumping.

"Link, you did it!" Peach chimed.

"And nice shot, by the way!" Toad added.

"It was nothing." Link smiled.

A blue light then showed up and the heroes wasted no time in getting out of this dreadful heat. The light took them back at Death Mountain, right in front of the cavern's entrance.

"Thank goodness we're out. I was sure dying in there!" Luigi exclaimed in relief.

"So, what now?" Yoshi asked… and at this exact moment, Darunia suddenly landed hard on the ground from right behind them, making them jump.

"Whoa! Where'd you come from?!" Toad flinched.

"Well done, all of you!" Darunia praised and gave all of them a pat on their shoulders… but given that he's a _Goron_ , that pat ended up knocking our heroes to the ground. "Thanks to you, we can once again eat the delicious rocks from Dodongo's Cavern until our stomachs burst!"

"You're welcome…" Mario groaned as he and the others were still trying to recover from that strong pat they just received.

"What a wild adventure! It will make an incredible story… I can't believe the Dodongos suddenly appeared in such great numbers! And that big rock blocking the cave… All this trouble must have been caused by that Gerudo thief, Ganondorf!"

"So he was here before?" Link asked as he and his friends got up.

"Indeed. He said, 'Give me the Spiritual Stone and the Platinum Star! Only then will I open the cave for you!'"

"Oh my…" Peach breathed.

"You, on the other hand, risked your lives for us… I like that! How's about you all and I become Sworn Sister and Brothers?!"

"Sister?!" Peach blinked.

"BROTHERS?!" Link, Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Toad yelled.

"No, there's no big ceremony involved! Just take these as tokens of our friendship!" Darunia grinned before raising his arms as a red glow and a white glow appeared before they flew towards the heroes, taking the form of the Goron's Ruby and the second Platinum Star respectively. Now they only have one more of these to find.

"Thanks a lot, Darunia!" Yoshi chirped.

"No problem!" Darunia smiled. "Brothers! Sister! You'll keep brushing up on your skills as you travel, won't you? You should go see the Great Fairy on top of Death Mountain! She will power you up!"

"Alright, thanks for your suggestion." Mario replied.

"Hey, everybody! Let's see off our brothers and sister!"

"Wait, WHAT?!" Link yelled as two Gorons landed from out of nowhere near Darunia.

"You did great!" one of them exclaimed as the two got up and started walking towards the heroes with their arms stretched… You probably know where this is going, right?

"How 'bout a big Goron hug?!" the other one spoke.

"Uh… I-I…" Link stammered while backing off before yelling, "SORRY, I HAVE TO GO!" he ran off… but was caught off guard when a third Goron landed in front of him before also going for a hug. "G-Get away! I'M OUT OF HERE!"

"Link, wait for us!" Toad called out as the Mario cast ran after Link as Darunia laughed at that scene.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile…**_

"Hmph, so they actually destroyed King Dodongo…" Ganondorf grumbled. "You were right; these ones with that little boy are no such pushovers."

"Haven't I told you? I'm actually quite surprised that even the princess is capable of helping at all." a large figure spoke from the shadows behind Ganondorf, so we're not able to see him yet. "What shall we do, Gerudo thief? Should we begin our attack now?"

"Not yet. Let's wait a little bit longer. My plan is going well, just so you wait…"

* * *

 _ **Back with the heroes…**_

" ***huff* *puff*** " Link panted heavily after running the hell away from the Gorons. "A Goron hug? As if I would accept! If Darunia knocked me and my friends down with just a pat, imagine what a hug would be!"

"Link!" the Mario cast called out as they finally caught up to him.

"Couldn't you have slowed down just a bit?" Luigi asked while panting a little.

"Sorry about that." Link apologized. "Anyway, let's just make our way to the top of the mountain to meet this Great Fairy."

They pressed on, passing by a shower of molten lava rocks falling down (Link's Hylian Shield proved to be useful here) and once they reached the top, Link blew up a wall, leading them to the Great Fairy's Fountain. Inside, Link played Zelda's Lullaby while standing on a Triforce symbol, and then the Great Fairy sprung out of her spring while letting out a hearty laugh.

"Welcome! I am the Great Fairy of Magic!" she spoke. "I will give you a magic spell. Please take it." she then creates a red glow with her arms and hands Link Din's Fire. "You can use Din's Fire not only to attack but also to burn things!"

"That sounds nice!" Link grinned.

"Hey! You're messengers of the Royal Family, aren't you? You should visit my friends who live across the land. They'll surely grant you other powers. When battle has made you weary, please come back to see me." she lets out another laugh as she dives back into the pool.

Satisfied with this new power they received, they exited the Fountain and at this exact moment…

"Hoo hoot!" an owl noise suddenly came in as an actual brown owl came flying down and landed on top of a sign. "Well, it looks like you've grown up a little from the Great Fairy's power…"

" _Either we're going crazy or an owl is actually talking to us…_ " the heroes thought.

"But you still don't really look like the heroes who will save Hyrule. At least not yet!"

"Wait, who are you?" Yoshi asked.

"My name is Kaepora Gaebora. I've been watching you on your journey ever since the beginning. The Great Deku Tree was an old, old friend of mine."

"Really?!" Link exclaimed.

"Yes, indeed, my boy! If you are all going back down the mountain, I can lend you a wing. Come here and grab my talons! Except that I can only carry one of you…"

"Don't worry, we have these." Mario pulled out some Cape Feathers while handing Magic Wings to Yoshi. "These Power-Ups shall help us fly and keep up with you."

"Ah, the Power-Ups. Of course, hoo hoot!"

"Oh, you're going to show us one of your Power-Ups?" Navi asked. "About time!"

By absorbing the Cape Feathers and Magic Wings, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad gained a yellow cape while Yoshi gained wings from his back.

"Cool!" Link exclaimed.

"Alright, you ready?" Kaepora Gaebora asked. Everyone nodded. "Good. Grab onto my talons, Link! And hold on tight! Hoo hooooooot!"

With that, Link grabs onto Kaepora Gaebora's talons before he took off flying and the Mario cast followed suit, using their flight Power-Ups to follow him down the mountain while at the same time enjoying the view.

After Kaepora Gaebora dropped Link down before leaving, the Mario cast landed next to him as their Power-Ups deactivated.

"Golly, what a journey we're having!" Luigi exclaimed with a smile.

"No kidding." Link replied before taking out the two collected Spiritual Stones. "The Kokiri's Emerald. The Goron's Ruby. And two Platinum Stars. Only one of each left!"

"Yes!" Peach nodded. "Zelda is counting on us!"

"But where are the last ones?" Toad asked. "We haven't gotten any information about them."

"Oh yeah, this could be a problem…" Mario pondered. "And even worse, it's almost sunset…"

"Maybe we can head back to Hyrule Field and find some clues?" Yoshi suggested.

"We can do that." Link shrugged. "But we also have to find a place to rest as well."

As the heroes were leaving Kakariko Village, Kaepora Gaebora was flying nearby and watching them.

"I could guide them to the last Spiritual Stone and Platinum Star, but I think I'm gonna let them rest for now and leave that for tomorrow. They deserve it." he spoke before flying away.

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **The Great Fairy who grants Link Din's Fire is actually located at Hyrule Castle in the original game rather than Death Mountain, which just granted him the Spin Attack technique that's not that hard to learn so I decided to make this one on Death Mountain grant him the spell since I didn't fell like writing about the heroes going back to Hyrule Castle just for that.**

 **...Who could that mysterious figure with Ganondorf be? If you payed attention to his dialogue, you might know who it is. Until the next chapter! Please review!**


	6. Befriending Horses and Zoras

**Next chapter done!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 6: Befriending Horses and Zoras**

Shortly after exiting Kakariko Village and heading back to Hyrule Field, they spotted something in the distance that caught their eyes.

"Hey, what's that over there?" Yoshi wondered. "I don't think we've checked that place yet."

"No, we didn't." Link shook his head. "Let's head there, because I'm curious now!"

They made their way to the place at the heart of Hyrule Field: Lon Lon Ranch.

Lon Lon Ranch is known around the kingdom for producing the most delicious milk ever tasted, among other dairy products like cheese and eggs. But this ranch is known for more than its products and cows, too. Word has spread around the kingdom that the best horses are bred here.

"Oh, it's a ranch!" Peach exclaimed.

"I hear singing…" Luigi spoke up. "Is it coming from over there?"

The group then made their way to the horse corral at the middle of the ranch, amazed by all of those majestic horses running around. At the very middle was someone rather familiar to our heroes.

"Malon!" they exclaimed.

"Oh, it's you all again!" Malon stops singing and replies. "I heard you found my dad! How did you like the castle? Did you see the princess? Hee hee! Dad came home in a hurry after you found him."

"We witnessed just that back then." Mario smiled. "By the way, you have a pretty singing voice."

"Thank you! My mother composed this song. And it is a song that my friend likes! Oh, yeah – I have yet to introduce her to you!" she directs them to a young horse with blue eyes, reddish-orange fur, and white mane and tail. "She's this horse. Her name is Epona. Isn't she cute?" she said while embracing Epona, making her let out a happy neigh.

"She's really cute." Link smiled. "Can I pet her?"

"Sure!" Malon leads Epona to Link, only for the little horse to back away in fear. "Oh… It seems like Epona is afraid of you… The only way to charm her is by singing the song you've been hearing."

"Really? If that's the case…" he takes out his ocarina. "I don't sing, but I do play!"

"Oh, cute ocarina! Are you going to play this song with that ocarina? OK, this is the song…" she sings the song to him, and he copies it on his ocarina. Link thus learns Epona's Song.

Immediately after hearing her song, Epona comes rushing to Link and nuzzled him, catching him by surprise.

"Oh! She likes you now!" Malon chirped.

"Eh heh heh… Easy, girl." Link chuckled as he pets Epona.

"Aw…" Peach smiled. "Now I wish I had a horse for myself too."

"Hmm…" Malon pondered for a bit before something came into her mind, "You know what? Peach, was it?"

"Yes."

"Come with me! I have something to show you that you might like!"

Peach follows Malon to the horses' feeding area, where there was a young horse at the same age as Epona with light-blue eyes, white fur, and light-pink mane and tail.

"Oh my goodness!" Peach gasped in amazement.

"Do you like her?" Malon smiled. "She's the rarest horse species that has ever breed in Lon Lon Ranch! Because of that, I made sure to take good care of her. I haven't given her a name yet, so you can think of one if you like."

"Don't worry, Malon. I'll make sure to give her a good name."

"Great!" Malon then looks up at the sky; it was now sunset. "It's getting late… How about you all spend the night here in the ranch? Even travelers need to rest, right?"

"Yeah. That's actually what we've been looking for; a place to rest."

"Then you're all lucky! I have to go see my father now. Feel free to explore our ranch as much as you want!" she leaves while waving.

Peach waved back and looked back at the white horse. She looked so sweet and adorable; that horse could really relate to Peach herself. And the fact that she had her mane and tail pink, which is Peach's favorite color, really helps. The horse let out a happy neigh that sounded so cute that Peach couldn't help it but gently pet her.

"She's really adorable, isn't she?" just then, Mario's voice came from nearby. Peach looked around to find her favorite plumber hero with his back leaned against the corral's fence with a soft smile on his face.

"She is." Peach replied, mirroring Mario's expression. "You know, I wonder how my life would turn out if I lived in a ranch?" she wondered while looking back at the horse.

"Very differently, that's for sure. For one, I don't think you would be crowned princess."

"Definitely not. Even that, I don't care if I'm a princess or not. At least I have some freedom."

"True." Mario then looks at the horse. "Boy, it's too bad she's not old enough to be ridden on."

"Yes…" Peach cresfalled. Surprisingly enough, even the horse looked saddened by that. "It's a shame, because I've already came up with a name for her."

"Well, if you could one day ride her, what name would you give her?" Mario asked.

Peach looked at the horse's eyes, who were filled with curiosity about which name she would be given. Smiling, Peach said:

"Pearl." after hearing this name, the horse, now named Pearl, neighed happily and nuzzled on Peach, making her giggle.

"Pearl? That's a beautiful name." Mario smiled. "And it looks like she really liked it!"

"I can see that!" Peach exclaimed. Then she laments, "But too bad that tomorrow we'll have to leave… I'm sorry, Pearl." Pearl looked saddened. Mario felt pity for the two. "Unless… I could give you something that'll make you always remember me." Peach's smile returned while reaching out her hand for something.

To Mario's surprise, Peach removes the blue brooch from her dress and straps it to Pearl's mane. "There. Pearl, just by looking at my brooch, I can guarantee that you'll never forget about me, no matter how many days or even years pass." Peach said. Pearl gave another happy neigh to her as she hugged her neck.

"Wow, I never imagined that you would one day remove your brooch…" Mario said with a hint of surprise.

"Neither do I." Peach then looks at the sky to see that it was getting darker. "Maybe we should head to Talon and Malon's house. I can see that the others already went there."

"Yeah, we should." Mario agreed. "Plus, I can't wait to find out what we'll have for dinner!" he rushes out of the corral.

" _There goes Mario thinking about food again._ " Peach thought with a playful smile as she follows Mario, but not before waving goodbye at Pearl.

When it was dinnertime, everyone had pumpkin soup and later grilled apples for dessert. Then, Malon helped her father set up some extra beds in the bedroom for the heroes to sleep on. They all rested for the night.

The next day, everyone had scrambled eggs with cheese and Lon Lon Milk for breakfast. The Mario cast found out that life at the ranch was very simple, even when it comes to food. The ranchers' diet mostly consisted of daily products, fruits and vegetables, which was the reason they were always so healthy.

But now, it was time for the heroes to take their leave.

"So you're going already?" Malon asked a bit saddened.

"We have to, I'm afraid." Mario replied.

"Don't worry, Malon. We'll come back here someday." Link assured. He was back at equipping the Deku Shield, since it was much more lighter and comfortable for him than the Hylian Shield.

"Let's go, everyone!" Navi exclaimed before the group began to leave the ranch.

"You all better come back, guys!" Malon called out as she saw the group leave until they were nowhere to be seen.

"Well, then… Back to work!" Talon exclaimed. "Malon, take care of the horses."

"Yes, father…" Malon went to the horse corral.

"I'll have to clean up the barn as usual, right?" Ingo guessed with a grumpy look.

"Yes, you have." Talon ordered as he walks towards the barn's entrance. "I've got a lot of work to do today, so you better keep the barn nice and clean!" he went inside.

"Hmph! Yeah, right! You'll probably snooze off during your work as always!" Ingo scoffed. "Ugh, I hate always being the one to do all the work while that lazy bum is napping all day! _I_ should have been the one in charge! Not him!" he grumbled some words under his breath before going inside the barn.

* * *

 _ **With the heroes…**_

"Well, we're all rested." Yoshi said. "So… where to now?"

"No idea…" Link shrugged. The Mario cast _and_ Navi would have face-faulted if Link didn't continue, "We still don't know where the last Spiritual Stone and Platinum Star are!"

"Perhaps I can help." Kaepora Gaebora's voice suddenly came as he lands on the sign pointing to the ranch. "Hoo hoo! I see that you are all rested and good to go!"

"Yeah…" Toad replied. "Do you know where the last Spiritual Stone and Platinum Star are?"

"Brave ones, the Spiritual Stone of Water and the third Platinum Star are in Zora's Domain."

"Zora's Domain?" Peach asked.

"It is a place inhabited by the Zoras, a race of aquatic people. The Zoras serve Hyrule's Royal Family by protecting this water source." Kaepora Gaebora answered before turning his head to the flowing river at the distance. "Just follow that river over there. It'll lead you to Zora's River. However, the domain's door will not open for anyone except those who have some connection with the Royal Family. Let them hear the melody of the Royal Family! Hooo hoo hoooot!" he then leaves.

"He definitely helped us." Luigi remarked.

"Absolutely." Link nodded. "Come on! To Zora's Domain!"

They went to the direction Kaepora Gaebora directed them to reach Zora's River. They followed up the river's trail, having to deal with some Octorocks in the way. Once they finally reached the end, there was a waterfall in front of them and a Triforce symbol below their feet. Remembering Kaepora Gaebora's advice, Link played Zelda's Lullaby on his ocarina.

Eventually, the waterfall splits into two, revealing a passageway between them. The heroes went into the passageway to reach Zora's Domain. The immediate thing the heroes felt when entering the tunnel leading to the domain was the air; it was humid and hot, but unlike the smothering hot air of Dodongo's Cavern, it was a pleasant humidity like if they were near a Goron's hot spring.

Zora's Domain, the home of the Zoras, is a watery paradise that is insulated to keep most out, but in these troubled times, even the private Zora are willing to accept help from outsiders. This place was for the most part a grotto, with crystal-like pools filling it, each body of water glowing with a soft blue light that reflected off the sandstone walls. There was another waterfall at the far end pouring over a ledge, possibly the most common place for Zoras to dive.

Speaking of the Zoras, they, for the most part, were just enjoying their privacy time swimming around their domain, diving with grace into the water, sometimes coming to the surface, but mostly staying submerged.

"Wow… This place is beautiful!" Peach exclaimed in amazement; everyone was just awed by this place alone.

"I would love to live here just to swim all day!" Yoshi beamed.

"Maybe we should ask around." Navi suggested. "Perhaps one of them knows where to find the Spiritual Stone and the Platinum Star."

The heroes nodded and walked forward, where there was a Zora standing at the end of the path.

"Outsiders? What brings you all to Zora's Domain?" he asked. "If you're here… Then are you the messengers of the Royal Family?"

"We are." Link nodded. "We're here to look for the Spiritual Stone of Water and the Platinum Star. Do you know something about those?"

"Hmm, I don't know much about these. Perhaps our King might know."

"Your king?" Toad asked.

"King Zora De Bon XVI. We Zoras happen to have our own Royal Family too. I can lead you to him."

"You can? Thanks!" Yoshi thanked.

"You're welcome. But… considering the situation he's in right now, I don't think he'll be willing to talk to you right now."

"Why not?" Luigi asked.

"You see, his daughter, Princess Ruto, has vanished mysteriously and no one here knows what happened to her. We searched around the waters of Hyrule, but we found no trace of her."

"Oh no…" Peach lamented.

"Well, I can still try to lead you to our King, anyways. Come with me."

The Zora then led them to King Zora's throne, where he kept mourning about the loss of his daughter.

"Your majesty." the Zora said. "The messengers of the Royal Family have arrived."

"…Is that so?" King Zora replied unenthusiastically. "Tell them to go talk to me some other time. I'm in no mood for that now."

" _Wow, he really is upset…_ " the heroes thought.

"Oh, my dear, sweet Princess Ruto… Where has she gone? I'm so worried…"

"See? I told you." the Zora said to the group before leaving.

"We have to make the king talk to us somehow…" Mario mused.

"But how?" Peach asked.

"Well, anyways, I'm feeling kind of dry. I'd like to swim a little bit in the Zoras' water." Yoshi said as he went back and leapt into the water as the rest of the group watched him swim. Even if the Zoras were still swimming around, they didn't seem to mind seeing a strange green dinosaur-like creature swimming in their waters, so long as they're not being bothered.

Just then, after swimming for a while, Yoshi spotted some sort of passage underwater near the lonely platform on the water.

"Guys! Guys! Come down here!" Yoshi called out for his friends. With a shrug, the rest of the heroes leapt down to join in with Yoshi.

"What is it, Yoshi?" Link asked.

"Look what I found!" Yoshi pointed at the underwater passage.

"A hidden passage!" Toad exclaimed. "What are we waiting for? Let's dive in!"

They did just that, and this passage happens to lead them to Lake Hylia.

"Golly, that's a huge lake…" Luigi looked around after they all emerged into the surface.

"I wonder if there's anything around here…" Peach wondered. Then, Navi saw something in the water:

"Hey! Over here! I can see something shining in the water!"

They swam to where Navi was and Mario dove into the water to pick the object the fairy saw. He came back up at the surface holding a bottle with a letter inside on his hand.

"Well, it's neither what we're looking for, but this bottle has a letter in it, so it could be important." he said.

"A letter?" Navi asked. "Well, let's go back to Zora's Domain and we can read it there."

The gang went back into the passage to return to Zora's Domain. There, they climbed up the lonely platform.

"So what does the letter say, Mario?" Navi asked. Mario then opened the bottle, dropped the letter on his hand, and read it:

"Help me. I'm waiting for you inside Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly. Signed, Ruto. PS: Don't tell my father!" everyone gasped after that.

"It's from Princess Ruto!" Navi exclaimed. "I know she told us to not tell her father but… We have to show this to King Zora!"

They wasted no time in heading back to King Zora's throne and showed him the letter.

"WHAT?! My daughter's inside Lord Jabu-Jabu?! That's not possible!" he exclaimed once he read it. "Our guardian god, Lord Jabu-Jabu, would never eat my dear Princess Ruto!"

"Maybe something happened to him that made him do that?" Peach guessed.

"Hmm… Now that you said it, this could make sense. Since that stranger, Ganondorf, came here, Lord Jabu-Jabu has been a little green around the gills… The evidence seems clear."

" _Ganondorf?!_ " the heroes thought.

"Since you're the messengers of the Royal Family of Hyrule, I can give you permission to go find Ruto. You can pass through here to the altar of Lord Jabu-Jabu. Please find my dear Princess Ruto immediately!"

"We'll do it, your highness!" Link replied, with the Mario cast nodding.

With that, King Zora began to move out of the way. As you expect, it took quite a while, but thank goodness our heroes were patient. Once the King stopped moving, the heroes went into the path he just opened for them, allowing them to reach Zora's Fountain.

The first thing that caught their eye was definitely the huge fish, Lord Jabu-Jabu, resting at the heart of the fountain.

"That is the biggest fish I've ever seen in my life..." Link breathed in amazement as they approached him.

"No kidding." Navi agreed.

"Is he supposed to be Lord Jabu-Jabu?" Yoshi wondered.

"Probably." Mario nodded. "He has to be big enough to swallow a person whole."

"So… How do we get him to open his mouth?" Luigi asked.

"Well, he's a guardian spirit, isn't he? Perhaps we can make an offering to him." Peach suggested.

"Okay, but what offering?" Toad asked.

Link looked around the waters of the fountain for a little bit, and saw a small fish swimming nearby, giving him an idea.

"I think I have one." he said before successfully catching the fish using the bottle that had the letter previously.

"Good thinking, Link!" Navi praised.

Link then approaches Lord Jabu-Jabu while holding the bottle with the fish inside.

"Lord Jabu-Jabu, please partake of this." he said politely while dropping the fish in front of the huge fish guardian.

Then, all of a sudden, Lord Jabu-Jabu snaps out of his stasis trance upon seeing the fish and opens up his mouth to inhale it. Only problem was… the heroes were in the way, so they were also getting sucked into his mouth too.

"WAAAAGH!" Link screamed. "JUST THE FISH! JUST THE FISH!"

After everyone was eaten alive, Lord Jabu-Jabu closes his mouth, not even bothered about what just happened previously.

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Yes, Pearl is going to become Peach's horse just like how Epona becomes Link's horse (Pearl was based on the same horse Peach rides in the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series). I decided to add another main horse since I wanted to have more room for the heroes for riding around Hyrule (just imagine having poor Epona carry six people all at once?!). Since there are six heroes in total, three of them will be riding Epona while the other three will be riding Pearl.**

 **Our heroes were eaten alive by Lord Jabu-Jabu! Little do they know that this is actually their third dungeon! See you next time! Please review!**


	7. Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly

**Sorry it took a while, but I finally got the next chapter done!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Inside Jabu-Jabu's Belly**

The heroes woke up to find themselves inside a grotesque place: Jabu-Jabu's Belly. Blotchy flesh was covering the walls, floor and ceiling, sphincters that worked as doors, and connective tissue in hallways. Not to mention the horrible smell and the sounds of gurgling noises echoing all over the place, as if Jabu-Jabu's digestion has already started.

"Guys, are you okay?" Navi asked.

"Yeah…" Link replied as he and everyone else got up. There was some silence until Luigi broke it:

"…We just got eaten by a fish, didn't we?"

"We did." Mario nodded before groaning at the smell, "Ugh, it smells like rotten fish in here!"

"Well, at least we can find Princess Ruto somewhere in here." Peach shrugged.

"So we better hurry and find her before she gets digested!" Yoshi exclaimed. "Or worse, _we_ get digested!"

The heroes nodded and were immediately confronted by Octoroks and Shabooms up ahead. Luigi took care of the Octoroks by electrocuting them with his thunder powers while Link slashed through the Shabooms, still needing to process the fact that mere _bubbles_ tried to attack him.

After that, Link shot the uvula at the ceiling to unlock the sphincter… er, I mean, the door up ahead and they went through it. At the other side, they went forward and met little jellyfish creatures called Biri, and since they were heading right for them, on instinct, Link slashes one of them. He defeated it, but at the cost of getting electrocuted in the process.

"Oh… that's gotta hurt." Toad winced as Yoshi tossed an egg at the other Biri.

"Those were Biri." Navi informed. "Try to attack them directly, and you'll get electrocuted."

"You okay, Link?" Peach asked while healing him.

"I'm fine… Just peachy…" Link groaned, until he realized what he just said in front of Peach. "Oh… and pun not intended." he spoke nervously, making Peach giggle.

Once Link was fully healed, the group continued on, entering another door up ahead, and at the other side… they found a certain young Zora girl minding her own business. They assumed that was Princess Ruto so they went up to her, catching her attention as she turned to them with a somewhat cold expression on her face.

"You! Who are you?!" she asked in a harsh tone. "I am Ruto, Princess of the Zoras." the heroes told her their names. "What weird names… What are you doing here?"

"Well, your father asked us to come here to save you." Link replied.

"What?! I'd never ask anyone to do such a thing!"

"What are you talking about? You were the one who sent a letter in a bottle telling where you were, so that's why we came here!" Mario interrogated.

"Letter in a bottle? I have no idea what you're talking about!"

" _Rude…_ " Mario thought with an annoyed expression.

"But Ruto, your father is worried about you!" Peach interfered. "He even refused to talk to us at first because of that!"

"I don't care!" Ruto shot back. "Anyway, I can't go home right now. And you all… Get out of here! Understand?!" she turns back and walks a few steps ahead… and then she falls into a hole. "Ooooh noooooo!" the heroes sweatdropped at this.

"Well, that was rude." Toad remarked. "Until she fell in that hole and went all damsel in distress…"

"While I also fit into that category, I don't get in distress _that_ easily!" Peach stated.

"Let's just go get her…" Link sighed as they all hopped down into the hole Ruto fell through to meet up with the bratty Zora Princess again.

"Ugh, are you all still hanging around here? I told you to go away!" she scolded.

"Hey, now." Yoshi puts his hands up, trying to reason with her. "At least tell us if you're alright, since that was one heck of a fall right there."

"I'm OK. I've been going inside Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly since I was little, but…"

" _Wait, so she LIKES being swallowed by this fish guardian?!_ " the heroes thought as Ruto continued her story:

"Lord Jabu-Jabu is very strange today… There are electrified jellyfish and strange holes around… On top of that, my precious stone and star were…" the heroes' eyes perked up at the mention of stone and star. Could she be talking about the Spiritual Stone of Water and the third Platinum Star? "But…that's none of your business! Anyway… You! Go home now! Understand?!"

"We are not leaving until you are safe." Peach shook her head, hardening her tone. "It's too dangerous to stay here alone with all those creatures roaming about. You even mentioned about those dangers yourself!"

"You're that worried about me? Then I will give you the honor of carrying me!"

"…What?" Link blinked in bewilderment. The Mario cast also had the same bewildered reaction.

"Carrying me! I'm not moving until you carry me! However…I won't leave until I find the things I'm looking for. You'd better believe me!" she then sits on the floor.

"Oh dear Hylia… you can't be serious…" Link muttered as he picked up Ruto and holding her above his head. " _Wait, 'Hylia'? Where did that word come from? I don't even know what a 'Hylia' is!_ " he thought before taking off with the Mario cast together to the nearby door.

When they finally made it back to the room where they first met Ruto, they went to the door up ahead, taking them to a series of trippy-looking hallways. The Mario cast fought off the Tailpasaran, since Link was busy holding Princess Ruto, and made their way to the end of one of the hallways.

In one of the doors, there were Stingers roaming about. Link then placed Ruto down and fought off the Stingers. After they were defeated, a treasure chest appeared that contained the Boomerang. They exited the room and went into a different hallway, where there was a sealed door.

There was a peculiar-looking button in front of the door, so Link decided to place Ruto on it and went through the door while the Mario cast stayed behind to watch over the Zora Princess. On the other side, Link encountered a massive parasitic tentacle, so he used his boomerang to get rid of it to make a treasure chest appear in the middle of the room, which contained the Dungeon Map.

But when he came back to the others… Ruto wasn't looking so happy:

"How inconsiderate! How could you leave me behind?! If you're a man, act like one! Take responsibility!" she sits down again. Link lets out an annoyed groan before picking her up again.

" _I swear… if she keeps nagging… I'm going to scream…_ " Link thought.

The parasitic tentacle Link just took care off seemed to allow the heroes to gain access to another door, where there were dozens of Shabooms on the other side. They disposed of them quickly, causing another chest to appear, which contained the Compass.

* * *

 _ **Later…**_

After getting rid of two more parasitic tentacles, the heroes soon got to a certain room where they spotted a shiny blue stone shaped like the Zora symbol and a platinum-colored star resting on top of a large round platform. At this moment, Ruto begin to squirm on top of Link as she squeals:

"That's it! Those're what I've been looking for! Throw me up there! Onto the platform!"

Link did just that and Ruto picks up the stone and the star (and the text that pops up when Ruto gets the Zora's Sapphire always gets me).

"Oh, my goodness! I finally found…my mother's stone and star…" Ruto said. "I got very upset when Lord Jabu-Jabu swallowed them… While I was feeding him, he suddenly swallowed me! I was so surprised, I dropped them inside… But now that I've found them, I don't need to be in here anymore! So take me home right now!"

"Oh, finally we can get out of this place…" Luigi sighed in relief.

…When all of a sudden, the platform shook, startling Ruto, before it took off to the opening at the ceiling with her!

"Keeeyaaaah! What is this?! An octopus?!" she shrieked.

"Ruto! What's going on?!" Peach called out to her.

"I'm having a bad feeling about this…" Navi trailed.

Just then, the platform lowers back down, but on Ruto's place… was a gigantic Octorok!

"What the heck?!" Toad flinched.

"Big Octo!" Navi exclaimed.

The Big Octo then jumps down the platform and begins to chase after the heroes.

"Gah! Stay back!" Link panicked, tossing his boomerang at it, causing it to get stunned in place. "Huh?"

Navi flies to the Big Octo's back and sees a peculiar green spot at it, giving her an idea:

"Link! Try to get around the Big Octo and strike its back!"

"Got it! Hurry, guys!"

The only way to get to the Big Octo's back was to circle around it. But when they were about to reach its back, the Big Octo's stunned status wore off and resumed moving.

"It's moving again!" Yoshi warned.

"No! Hold still!" Link tossed his boomerang at the Big Octo to stun it again.

With that, the heroes reached its back and striked it with all their might. The Big Octo cries in pain before melting away.

"That takes care of it." Link said.

"I wonder what happened to Ruto?" Peach wondered.

"And the objects she took with her… Could those be the ones we're looking for?" Mario guessed.

"Only one way to find out." Navi said. "Let's keep moving!"

They went up the platform and walked around, continuing their search for Princess Ruto. They went through some more rooms and put a box on a switch in the process to go deeper inside Lord Jabu-Jabu, taking out some Stingers and Biri in the process.

* * *

Soon, they got into a wide room, perfect for a Boss Battle as you all expect, and they started to hear noises of electricity. They looked around for the source, bracing themselves, and found out that it belonged to not just one, but from lots of large jellyfish creatures in front of them.

Then, they watched the jellies attach themselves to… a horrific and gigantic parasitic anemone, with its tentacles connecting to the room's ceiling. That was the Bio-electric Anemone: Barinade.

"Okay, that thing is UGLY with a capital… everything!" Toad exclaimed.

"Then let's destroy this freak of nature!" Link declared, taking out his boomerang.

The little hero tosses the boomerang at the tentacles attaching themselves to the ceiling in order to prevent Barinade for further draining the poor fish deity's life energy while also avoiding its electric attacks, where it evolves shooting electricity from its detached tentacles.

After all the tentacles were detached, Barinade goes into a fury and moves around the room while releasing the jellyfish that were attached to its main body, making them spin around it.

"Dang, it's so hard to hit it with all these jellyfish spinning around it rapidly!" Link growled, trying to aim his boomerang precisely.

"Looks like he might need some help." Mario said to his gang. "Good thing we can also use a boomerang with these!" he takes out some Boomerang Flowers.

"Oh, nice!" Luigi exclaimed as he, Peach and Toad took each a Boomerang Flower and absorbed it along with Mario, turning into their Boomerang forms, where they gained attires similar to the one the Boomerang Bros wear, but in their respective colors.

With Link, he kept tossing his boomerang at Barinade, but the jellyfish were blocking it. And if things couldn't get any worse, Barinade aims one of its tentacles at him in an attempt to shoot electricity at him.

That is, until four different-colored boomerangs suddenly came in. Three of them, being the blue, pink, and red ones, missed, but the fourth one, the green one, managed to hit Barinade's body, causing it to sink to the ground and the jellyfish stopped spinning and were now just standing in place.

"Yes! I got it!" Boomerang Luigi cheered.

"Great job, bro!" Boomerang Mario praised. "You sure have the eyes of an eagle!"

"You guys also have boomerangs?!" Link asked in surprise, seeing Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad in their Boomerang forms.

"Only with this Power-Up, which as you just saw, grants us the ability to toss boomerangs." Boomerang Mario explained.

"Cool! Wait, why didn't Yoshi get one as well?"

"Yoshi can only use different kinds of Power-Ups than us."

"Most of them involves me eating different fruits." Yoshi added.

"Oh, okay." Link said.

"Hey, Link!" Navi called out. "Now you can get rid of these jellyfish!"

With that, Link and the others got rid of all the jellyfish, made it easier thanks to the Boomerang Mario cast tossing boomerangs at some of them. Once all the jellyfish were gone, Barinade gets up from the ground and hovers around the room while trying to shoot electricity at the heroes, but they avoided its attacks.

During that, Link and the Boomerang Mario cast toss their boomerangs at Barinade, making it cry in pain (do parasites cry in pain?) and fall back on the ground. They all delivered their final blows on Barinade's body, with Link finishing it off by stabbing it right into the middle.

However, just because Barinade was defeated doesn't mean its death wouldn't be that disturbing: as soon as it was hit by the final strike, its entire body, tentacles included, began to develop disgusting-looking ulcers, before exploding into green goo, leaving chunks of flesh on the floor. And to make things ever more disgusting, some of the flesh chunks fell on the Boomerang Mario cast, causing their Power-Up to wear off. Sure, it's quite a funny way to force them out of their Boomerang forms, but still…

"Ew…" Toad grimaced, shaking the green goo off of himself. "Gross!"

"Aw, that was my favorite dress!" Peach complained, seeing that her dress had stains of green goo all over it.

"Well, I'm just glad this is done with…" Mario said. "Geez, we really need to find a place to wash this goo off!"

"Ugh, about TIME!" a voice said as they turned around and saw Ruto into the blue light that would take them out of this dungeon.

" _Oh god no…_ " the heroes thought with annoyed looks as they stepped into the blue light.

"You… You're late! What took you so long? You're useless! I was just lonely, that's all… Just a little!"

The light then activates, taking all of them out of Jabu-Jabu's Belly… and the heroes suddenly found themselves standing on top of a random giant branch somewhere in Zora's Fountain.

"What the-… How did we end up here?" Link wondered before turning his head… only to get a face full of Ruto. "W-WHOA!" he yelled in startle, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the water below. The Mario cast, in concern, leapt into the water after Link, ironically getting rid of the green goo they were covered with in the process.

Link surfaced along with the Mario cast and saw Ruto swimming up to them, but she was mostly going towards Link. Did he just saw her blushing a little when she approached him?

"You! You looked cool… Cooler than I thought you would, anyway…" she smiled. "The others… Just a little!"

" _A little?!_ " the Mario cast thought, a bit offended by Ruto's comment.

"Well, anyway, you all saved me, so I guess I'll reward you. What do you wish? Just tell me…"

"I, um…" Link replied, blushing a little since Ruto was really close to his face. "Do you think you could hand me and my friends that Spiritual Stone and Platinum Star? We really need those…"

"Oh, you mean the Spiritual Stone of Water, Zora's Sapphire, and the Platinum Star, don't you? My mother gave them to me and said I should give the Sapphire only to the man who will be my husband, while I keep the Platinum Star. You may call those two the Zora Engagement Rings! The stone for the husband, and the star for the wife! But I guess I'll give both to you!"

Ruto then swims off, heading back to Zora's Domain, but not before handing Link and the Mario cast the Zora's Sapphire and the third Platinum Star. Now they've got all Spiritual Stones and Platinum Stars! Time to warn Princess Zelda about this!

Soon, they ended up finding another Fairy Fountain, where the Great Fairy they met grants Link Farore's Wind, a teleportation spell. Knowing already their destination, Link uses this spell to teleport them directly to Hyrule Field, right in front of the drawbridge.

But little do they know, that all the elements they saw in their prophetic dream that brought all of them together in the first place, would soon come to reality…

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **We're getting closer to the seven year time skip! Until then! Please review!**


	8. The Hero of Time's Awakening

**Phew, this took a while, but it's done!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 8: The Hero of Time's Awakening**

The moment Link and his friends arrived back at Hyrule Castle's drawbridge… everything looked horribly wrong, especially the skies: they were covered with a black curtain of thunderclouds as a few lightning bolts struck down before the downpour finally started. The heroes were in awe, wondering how did this happen all of a sudden as they glanced at the closed drawbridge.

A few seconds later, the drawbridge began to lower. Somehow, this felt way too familiar for our heroes… And before long, they started to hear galloping sounds coming from Hyrule Town after the drawbridge was completely lowered.

They were quick to react and move out of the way. The horse was a majestic white, and much to their surprise, they saw Impa and Zelda riding it.

" ***gasp*** ZELDA!" Link called out. Zelda heard him and turned around to see him and his friends.

"Everyone!" she exclaimed. "Impa, stop the horse!"

"I can't, milady." Impa shook her head. "We'll be killed!"

Sighing, Zelda decides to toss them the Ocarina of Time, the Royal Family's most treasured possession. But her throwing was a bit too much, and the Ocarina ended up falling into the moat, which didn't go unnoticed by our heroes.

Then, after the white horse disappeared into the distance, the heroes heard the neigh of another horse from behind them. They turned around… and saw that the rider of this black horse with red mane and tail was none other than Ganondorf.

That's where realization struck our heroes like a lightning bolt; those were the exact same moments, sans Zelda tossing the Ocarina to them, that has occurred in their strange dream! Only that now it was no dream; all of this was real. Their dream just literally became real.

"Arrrrgh! I lost her!" Ganondorf muttered in frustration. He then glanced down at the heroes. "You, over there! You must have seen the white horse gallop past just now… Which way did it go?! Answer me!"

The heroes knew that Ganondorf was not a trusting man ever since he looked extremely ominous already in their dream even if they didn't know who he was before. Not to mention that they strongly believed in Princess Zelda's words about him, and they were not going to let her down. They clenched their fists in anger as Link declared:

"We'll NEVER tell you!" he hissed angrily as he draws out his sword and shield while the Mario cast stood ready to fight, also keeping a hard glare at Ganondorf.

"So you think you can protect them from me… You've all got guts." Ganondorf smirked. "Heh heh heh… You want a piece of me?! Very funny! I like your attitude!"

He then rose his left palm, conjuring an orb of magic in it, and blasted it at the heroes, knocking all of them away on the ground as they screamed. In the midst of that, Link also ended up dropping the Fairy Ocarina in the process as it fell out of his pocket.

"Guys!" Navi cried out.

"Pathetic little fools! Do you realize who you are dealing with?! I am Ganondorf! And soon I will rule the world!" Ganondorf declared and made his horse gallop away… "And I'll gladly take this…" but not before snatching the Fairy Ocarina from the ground next to Link, thinking it was the Ocarina of Time.

" _N-No…! That's… Saria's Ocarina…!_ " Link thought, seeing Ganondorf taking the ocarina before galloping off.

The heroes managed to sit up and watch Ganondorf's horse gallop into the distance until it was nowhere to be seen. Just by thinking about what they got themselves into sent a chill down their spines.

"Ganondorf…" Mario whispered.

"That man is no slouch, that's for sure!" Toad remarked.

"Golly… He might be even more dangerous than Bowser!" Luigi exclaimed.

"At this state, we're no match for him at all…" Peach lamented.

"You know, I didn't mean to change the subject, but I'm still wondering what the princess tossed to us." Yoshi interfered.

"Oh, right!" Link said. "I saw it falling into the moat! I'll go get it!"

With that, Link leapt into the moat and dove underwater to retrieve the Ocarina of Time.

" _ ***gasp***_ _is this…?_ " he thought before a bright light from the ocarina suddenly engulfed him.

* * *

 _He suddenly found himself standing inside a building he had never been before. He glanced at his surroundings: stained glass windowpanes lined the clear white walls on either side, black and white tiles filled the floor alternating like a chessboard, and a red velvet carpet was stretching all the way towards an odd stone altar standing right in front of a door with the symbol of the Triforce above it._

 _Most of the area was obscured with a strange fog, but by squinting his eyes, he saw a familiar figure up ahead standing right in front of the altar with its back turned. It was Zelda!_

" _Link…can you hear me? It's me, Zelda…" she spoke in a somber tone. "Link, when you hold this ocarina in your hand… I won't be around anymore…" she happened to be clutching what it seems to be an exact replica of the Ocarina of Time in her hands close to her chest as her eyes were closed. "I wanted to wait for you and the others, but I couldn't delay any longer…"_

 _She then turns around to face him, still keeping the closed eyes._

" _At least I could leave you the ocarina and this melody… This song opens the Door of Time…" putting the ocarina into her lips, she plays the Song of Time on it. Link copied it, learning the Song of Time._

" _Now, Link. Play this melody in front of the altar in the Temple of Time. You and the others must protect the Triforce!"_

 _His vision fades…_

* * *

"…ink… …Link…!" Link hears echoes of someone's voice as he began to regain conscious. "Link!" it was Navi calling out to him.

"Huh? What?" Link blinked while looking around, noticing that he was back at Hyrule Field with his friends surrounding him showing looks of concern.

"Link, what happened to you? You were in a daze! We were so worried!"

"Oh, sorry about that. It's just… When I touched the Ocarina of Time, I suddenly had a vision…"

"A vision?" Peach asked.

"Yes…" with a look of determination, Link told his friends, "Everyone… We have all the Spiritual Stones, the three Platinum Stars, and the Ocarina of Time… We have to hurry to the Temple of Time!"

Everyone nodded and went towards Hyrule Town to look for the Temple of Time.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile…**_

"CURSES!" Ganondorf angrily crushes the Fairy Ocarina in his hand, breaking it into pieces. "This is not the Ocarina of Time. It looks like it, but it's different."

"And what exactly is the difference, genius?" the same large figure from before questioned.

"The ocarina is blue, and has the symbol of the Triforce. This one had none of those." he then had flashbacks about when he confronted the heroes previously. "You tricked me, kid… And it makes me so mad!"

"Say, doesn't he have the Ocarina of Time now? If he and his pals have all the keys, we could follow them, you know…" the figure smirked.

"…Of course! If they're really heading to the Temple of Time now, they could very well lead us to the Sacred Realm!" Ganondorf exclaimed in realization.

"And that place is where the Triforce and the Grand Star of Magic are, right?"

"Yes. You know, no matter what, you never fail to disappoint me… Bowser."

"It is a pleasure, Lord Ganondorf. Now, let's move already!"

Oh, snap…

* * *

 _ **Back with the heroes…**_

"So this is the Temple of Time…" Link looked around as he and his friends entered the Temple of Time. "Looks very similar to the place I was during that vision…"

The Mario cast, however, was more interested on the large door at the very end of the room with an altar in front of it.

"And that door… Could it be the Door of Time?" Mario wondered.

"Is there anything behind it? I'm getting curious now!" Yoshi exclaimed with anticipation.

"Only one way to find out." Navi said, flying close to the altar. "Oh, hey! Look over here!" the group approached the altar. "There are three hollows and an inscription here…" it says:

 _Ye who owns three Spiritual Stones and three Platinum Stars_

 _Stand with the Ocarina of Time_

 _And play the Song of Time_

Remembering the words Zelda spoke to him, Link took out the Ocarina of Time and played the Song of Time. Eventually, the three Spiritual Stones flew out of Link's pocket while the three Platinum Stars flew out from the Mario cast. Both types of objects hovered into the air before the Spiritual Stones descended down to the altar on their respective spots.

The Platinum Stars, however, after dancing around in the air for a bit, begin to coalesce, and after a bright glow, the three small stars merged together into a single bigger platinum star, now looking more like a Grand Star.

Just then, the Triforce symbol above the Door of Time glowed golden as the door opens up, revealing a passageway, where the Grand Star zips into before the heroes could even move.

"So the three Spiritual Stones fixed themselves onto this altar… while the three Platinum Stars just merged together into a single, bigger star. What was even the point of the latter's occurrence?" Toad questioned.

"Well, we can't judge things just by seeing what happened to them." Luigi replied with a shrug. "Maybe it could be something useful!"

"Come on! Let's go see what's over there!" Yoshi called out.

They all went into the passageway, where there was a large platform in the middle of the room shaped like a hexagon, with three levels of height. At the topmost level, there was a small pedestal with the symbol of the Triforce carved at the front, with a bare sword thrust down into it, and the Grand Star that just flew inside was hovering above it.

Navi flew forward a few feet, where the heroes heard her gasp:

" ***gasp*** everyone, isn't that…?!" she cried in astonishment, flying towards the sword. "It's that legendary blade… The Master Sword!"

"Master Sword?" Link asked. "I've never heard of it."

"A friend of the Deku Tree told me about it!"

Link and his friends decided to approach the Master Sword, and sure enough, it does possess signals that describes it as a legendary blade: for one, it was in perfect condition as if it was never even wielded in the first place. Its deep purple hilt was long, with turquoise leather straps decorating it, and its crossguards were shaped like spread wings with a golden diamond-shaped gem in the middle. The shining royal blue blade itself was slightly thinner than the rest of its length and it bears the mark of the Triforce during the transition between hilt and blade.

As they approached the pedestal, the Grand Star that remained immobile aside from spinning in the air suddenly floats right above the Mario cast's heads as they looked up at it in awe.

" _What is that star doing…?_ " they thought before they turned their attention to Link, who was ready to pull out the Master Sword.

" _If I have this sword…_ " he thought, griping both hands on the hilt. " _…will I be able to defeat him?_ "

Using all his might, Link pulls out the sword from its pedestal. All of a sudden, blue light began to envelop everyone. At the same time, the Grand Star circles around the Mario cast, engulfing them in a white light as everyone felt their bodies going numb before everything went white.

* * *

 _The heroes suddenly had a vision showing Ganondorf right in front of their eyes. Alongside him was Bowser, only that he was obscured by shadow so the heroes couldn't yet see him._

" _Geh heh heh! Excellent work!" Ganondorf chuckled. "As my new partner thought, you held the keys to the Door of Time! You have led us to the gates of the Sacred Realm… Yes, we owe it all to you!"_

 _They both shared an evil laugh as the vision begins to fade._

* * *

"Link… Mario… Luigi… Peach… Yoshi… Toad… Wake up…" an old man's voice suddenly called out to the heroes. "Awaken… our chosen ones!"

As they all began to regain consciousness, the first thing they heard was sounds of flowing water. When they opened their eyes, they eyed at the water: there was no surface beneath it, yet it somehow maintained a form as if it was solid ice. Looking around, they saw that there were more platforms, each with a unique color, surrounding them, so they quickly concluded that they were standing on one as well. When they looked up, they were surprised to see that they were standing in the middle of a black void, with cascades of water flowing down all over the place.

What made them even more surprised was the fact that there was a man standing at the platform that was right in front of them. The man was bald, with white beard as the only facial hair he sports due to his old age. His clothing consisted of a heavy orange robe, with its sleeves covering his hands, and a red embroidered trim was around his neck, stretching down all the way to the bottom of the robe.

"I am Rauru, one of the ancient Sages…" the man spoke. "Ages ago, we ancient Sages built the Temple of Time to protect the entrance to the Sacred Realm… This is the Chamber of Sages, inside the Temple of Light… The Temple of Light, situated in the very center of the Sacred Realm, is the last stronghold against Ganondorf's evil forces."

"Ganondorf's evil for-…?" Link felt his throat before he could even finish that sentence. What happened to his voice?! It sounded much deeper, yet he could still hear just a little of his old voice in it. Seeing Link's sudden shock, Rauru tells him:

"Link… Don't be alarmed… Look at yourself…!"

Taking a deep breath, Link looks down at himself and lets out a silent gasp of shock. He was now taller than he used to be, though his childhood green raiment appeared to have grown with him, with the same green cap, now big enough to fit, the same leather belt at the waist, and the same leather boots, now for adult size. He was also wearing a white long undershirt with white trousers to match, and leather bracers were covering his forearms and his hands in a fingerless-glove style. Glancing behind his shoulder, he saw that he had the Master Sword strapped to his back, sheeted in an ornately decorated scabbard, as well as the Hylian Shield, which was previously too big and too heavy for him to wield as a child, but now, it felt like he was still wearing the Deku Shield.

"Wh-What happened?" he stuttered, still not yet used to his new voice.

"Look, Link! You're big now! You've grown up!" Navi exclaimed in surprise.

"…Link?! Is that really you?" Link heard a familiar voice from behind him. When he looked back, he saw the shocked faces of the Mario cast, staring at him in awe since he was so different now. But the oddest thing he noticed was…

The Mario cast haven't changed at all!

Why did he change, but not them?

"Okay, what in the world just happened?" Link asked Rauru. "I pulled the Master Sword free, and then nothing…"

"The Master Sword – the evil-destroying sword that you pulled out of the Pedestal of Time – was the final key to the Sacred Realm." Rauru said. "The Master Sword is a sacred blade that evil ones may never touch… Only one worthy of the title of 'Hero of Time' can pull it from the Pedestal of Time… However, you were too young to be the Hero of Time… Therefore, your spirit was sealed here for seven years."

"Seven… YEARS?!" Link flinched. Even the Mario cast was surprised.

"Yes… And now that you are old enough, the time has come for you to awaken as the Hero of Time!"

"I'm the… Hero of Time?" Link breathed.

"How come we were sealed with Link? We're not the chosen wielders of the Master Sword." Mario asked, shaking his head and shrugging at the last sentence.

"And why haven't we aged, but Link did?" Luigi asked.

"For the answer to your first question, you all were together with Link, so you were sealed with him too."

"Oh. Makes sense." Mario nodded.

"And the answer to your second question… You all do recall seeing the three Platinum Stars combine together into a single bigger star, right?"

"We do." Toad replied.

"That star is known as the Grand Star of Time. It is a very powerful star that only people who do not belong to this world can wield its power. You all fit into that category, so the star unleashed its magic on you."

"And what did this magic did to us?" Yoshi asked.

"The Grand Star of Time has the power to prevent those who warp forward or back in time from aging or de-aging respectively. So, when you all were about to get sealed, the Grand Star of Time did just that on you, thus explaining why you kept your normal ages."

"Oh, wow…" Peach breathed. "So it went like we just used an ordinary time machine!"

"Indeed, you are correct."

"Oh, thank god we didn't change…" Luigi sighed in relief. "I'm still not quite ready yet to see myself seven years older."

"Well, do you all understand your destiny, chosen ones?" Rauru asked.

"We do." Link answered, still having to process the fact that HE was the Hero of Time.

"Good. But, remember… Though you opened the Door of Time in the name of peace… Ganondorf, the Gerudo King of Thieves, and his new partner, used it to enter this forbidden Sacred Realm!"

" _Oh no…_ " the heroes thought. " _And that partner that was with him… Who was he…?_ "

"They obtained the Triforce and the Grand Star of Magic from the Temple of Light, and with their power, they became the Kings of Evil… Their evil power radiated from the temples of Hyrule, and in seven short years, it transformed Hyrule into a world of monsters."

" _All of that in just seven years?! But wait… What was that Grand Star of Magic he just mentioned?_ "

"My power now has only little influence, even in this Sacred Realm… Namely, this Chamber of Sages. But there is still hope… The power of the Sages remains. When the power of all the Sages is awakened… The Sages' Seals will contain all the evil power in the void of the Realm… I, Rauru, am one of the Sages… And…" he points at Link. "Your power to fight together with the Sages and your friends makes you the Hero of Time! The Hero of Time, chosen by the Master Sword!"

" _Chosen by the Master Sword…? Is he saying that a literal sword chose me?! How is that possible?_ " Link thought, not believing that an inanimate object chose him to be its wielder.

"Keep my spirit with you all… Find the power of the other Sages, and add their might to your own! And so I shall grant you my power… in these!"

Rauru raises his hands into the air, and two shiny objects descended down towards our heroes. One of them was a yellow medallion with the symbol of Light carved into it, falling into Link's hands. The other object was a yellow Grand Star, falling into the Mario cast's hands.

"Hero of Time, what you hold is the Light Medallion, one of the six Sage Medallions. Heroes from Another World, in your possession is the Grand Star of Light, one of the six Grand Stars that the other Sages hold. I've stored some of my power into these. The more Medallions and Grand Stars you hold, the stronger you become."

As the heroes' vision turned white, they could hear Rauru's final words:

" _Find the other Sages and save Hyrule!"_

* * *

The heroes soon found themselves back at the Pedestal of Time. It seems that nothing has changed at first.

"I never knew we would be gifted with such a great destiny…" Link whispered.

"Neither did we…" Peach agreed. She then looks around, "Say, has it really been seven years?"

"Let's find out."

Everyone agreed and began to leave, until…

"I've been waiting for you, Chosen Ones…" an unfamiliar female voice came from behind them. They turned around and saw that the one who spoke appears to be a Sheikah, judging by her clothing.

"Who are you?" Mario asked.

"I am Sheik, survivor of the Sheikah…" the woman named Sheik answered, before looking at Link. "As I see you standing there holding the mythical Master Sword, you really do look like the legendary Hero of Time…"

"I… do?" Link blinked.

"Yes. Now, listen well to my words, all of you… When evil rules all, an awakening voice from the Sacred Realm will call those destined to be Sages who dwell in the five temples. One in a deep forest… One on a high mountain… One under a vast lake… One within the house of the dead…" Luigi paled up at this, as always. "One inside a goddess of the sand… Together with the Hero of Time and the Heroes from Another World, the awakened ones will bind the evil and return the light of peace to the world… This is the legend of the temples passed down by the Sheikah tribe."

"… _inside a goddess of the sand, aaand done!_ " Toad thought; he had been writing down the locations Sheik described for them on a traveler's notebook (I'm referencing the fact that he's Captain Toad). " _This should makes things easier for us!_ " after putting away his notebook, he resumed listening to Sheik.

"If you all believe the legend, you have no choice. You must look for the five temples and awaken the five Sages… In order to awaken all the other Sages, you must become even more powerful. You must travel over mountains… under water… and even through time…" Sheik steps aside, revealing the Pedestal of Time. "So if you want to return to your original time, return the Master Sword to the Pedestal of Time. By doing this, you all will travel back in time seven years…" she directs her gaze at Link. "You'll return to your child appearance…" she then switches her gaze to the Mario cast. "And the Grand Star of Time will unleash its power on you to prevent you from de-aging, so you'll always keep your normal ages when you travel in time."

" _Well, I guess there will be some things to do when going back in time…_ " Link mentally shrugged.

"The time will come when you will have to return here quickly… I will teach this melody to you for when that time comes… The song to return you to the Temple of Time… The Prelude of Light…"

Sheik then takes out her harp and plays the aforementioned song. Link takes out the Ocarina of Time and copies the notes. He learns his first warp song: the Prelude of Light.

"Now back to the task at hand… One Sage is waiting for the time of awakening in the Forest Temple. The Sage is a girl I am sure you know…"

" _A girl… Saria?!_ " Link thought in shock; could Saria actually be one of the Sages?

"Because of the evil power in the temple, she cannot hear the awakening call from the Sacred Realm… Unfortunately, equipped as you currently are, you cannot even enter the temple… But if you believe what I'm saying, you should head to Kakariko Village… Do you understand?"

"We do." Link responded for everyone.

"Good. And always remember, Hero of Time… As long as you hold the Ocarina of Time and the Master Sword, you hold time itself in your hands… We shall meet again!"

After that, Sheik throws a Deku Nut, and disappears in a flash.

"Once again with that…" Luigi remarked. "I'll never understand how the heck all these Sheikah do that…"

"Well, anyways… Let's head to Kakariko Village!" Navi exclaimed.

They headed for the exit of the Temple of Time, unaware about the drastic change the entirety of Hyrule has suffered…

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **A lot of questions from previous chapters are finally answered! The large figure working with Ganondorf was actually Bowser, the Platinum Stars form the Grand Star of Time... And what about that Grand Star of Magic? That question will only be answered at the final portion of the story!**

 **Speaking of which, the idea I came up for all these Grand Stars are actually from a ROM Hack Mario 64 game done by the same guy who did Last Impact: a ROM Hack that combines Mario characters with the world of Ocarina of Time (I forgot the name of it). I really loved that ROM Hack and that gave me inspiration to come up with these special Grand Stars.**

 **Finally, as you just saw at the end, I decided to make Sheik teach Link the Prelude of Light much earlier since the first time you actually require to go back is before the Shadow Temple, and that takes quite long and wouldn't make sense given what happens to Sheik after a certain cutscene.**

 **Our heroes' fate turned out to be way deeper than they originally thought... Until the next chapter! Please review!**


	9. Journey to the Forest Temple

**Next chapter done!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Journey to the Forest Temple**

As soon as the heroes left the Temple of Time, they were instantly greeted with a horrific sight: bloody-red clouds covered the entire sky, houses were empty and some even destroyed, and only a loud wind was blowing around the deserted Market. All the happiness and loudness of this place just shifted to sadness and silence. Everyone's faces had shocked looks just by looking around.

"Oh." Mario.

"My." Luigi.

"God." Link.

"What has happened to the town?!" Toad asked.

"It used to be so lively…" Peach lamented.

"And that's not all…" Yoshi trailed as he pointed at some things that are emerging out of the ground. "Look!"

What could possibly be worse than a deserted town? A deserted town occupied with ReDeads! Yep, those are exactly what just emerged out of the ground.

"Oh, no…" Luigi paled up, petrifying in fear once again.

"Link… You might want to use the Sun's Song." Navi suggested.

"I was thinking the same thing, Navi." Link said and played the Sun's Song on his ocarina, freezing the ReDeads in place as everyone rushed out of the town, with Mario dragging away the petrified Luigi, taking off to Hyrule Field.

There, Mario freed his brother out of his stone shell before they headed off to Kakariko Village. Along the way, they decided to discuss about what just became of Hyrule when Ganondorf and his mysterious sidekick had taken over.

"My… What has Ganondorf and his newest minion done to Hyrule?" Navi questioned.

"Is that what we saw back there will become of Hyrule if they win?" Toad wondered.

"This is horrible! We can't allow that!" Link exclaimed. "Not only this land will be forever ruled by shadows, but… what about the people we've met?"

"Oh my… Now that I think about it, if Ganondorf and his minion are that dangerous, these people could suffer a worse fate…" Peach whispered.

"So it looks like the fate of this land is now in our hands…" Mario furrowed his eyebrows. "No matter what, we can't let those two bad guys win!"

"You said it, bro!" Luigi threw in.

As they approached the entrance to Kakariko Village, they all started to hear loud noises from there.

"Eh? What's with all this noise?" Yoshi wondered.

"Something must be happening at Kakariko…" Mario suspected. "Let's hurry and see what it is!"

They went through the gates of Kakariko, and looking up ahead, they were surprised to see the commotion that was happening there: a certain adult horse was galloping and neighing like crazy as the local villagers, with some of them happening to be survivors of Hyrule Town who fled here due to Ganondorf's takeover, tried to approach it to calm it down, but no success.

"Stop! Don't take Epona!" an adult woman that looked somehow familiar to the heroes cried out in the middle of this chaos as she tries to approach Epona.

"We don't have any choice, Malon." a middle-aged woman lamented, grabbing Malon's arm and pulling her away. "If we disobey the sorcerer king…"

"Him again?!" Malon angrily pushes the middle-aged woman away from her so that she could let go of her arm. "I can't stand the thought of Epona being Ganondorf's horse!"

" _Epona?!_ " Link thought, his eyes widening in realization. " _No way she'll become Ganondorf's horse! It's good that I know just the thing to calm her down…_ "

Taking out his ocarina, Link plays Epona's Song on it as he slowly approaches Epona. Everyone stopped and watched Link playing the song, while Epona's ears perked up and stopped her rampage upon hearing her favorite song. Her eyes were focused on Link and, having flashbacks of their first meeting seven years ago, she immediately recognizes him and runs up to him while neighing happily.

"Epona…" Link whispered, tearing up in joy as Epona had the same reaction. "It's you, Epona!" he hugs her muzzle.

"Wow, is that really Epona?" Toad said surprised. "I can't believe she still remembers Link!"

"You know, I wonder if Pearl still remembers me as well?" Peach wondered.

* * *

 _ **Speaking of which…**_

Things weren't look good for Pearl after all those seven years in Lon Lon Ranch; Ingo became loyal to Ganondorf and kicked Talon out of the ranch and Malon had to do all the work, otherwise Ingo would abuse the horses, and Malon hated that.

Because of that, Pearl and Epona had been stuck with an abusive owner until Epona decided to escape the ranch by herself as she was more confident than Pearl, who was more timid.

What was happening to Pearl right now? Ingo was abusing her and the other horses since Malon had snuck out of the ranch. Angered, Pearl was trying to get out of Ingo's grasp since he was pulling her neck with a rope.

"Come on, you stupid horse! OBEY ME!" Ingo yelled. "If I couldn't get Epona to be Lord Ganondorf's horse, then YOU will!"

In the middle of this, Peach's brooch, which was still attached to Pearl's mane, ends up falling out and lands on the ground. Pearl took a quick glance at it, causing her to have flashbacks of her as a young horse meeting Peach for the first time seven years ago. Determined to see her new friend again, she kicks Ingo away, picks up the brooch with her teeth and gallops out of the horse corral.

"H-Hey! Get back here!" Ingo demanded, but Pearl didn't listen and actually manages to jump over the ranch's gates like if they were a fence. Ingo had a grief look on his face as he watched Pearl galloping away.

* * *

Back at Kakariko Village, the Mario cast was watching Link petting Epona's muzzle while the villagers were astonished at what was happening in front of them.

"You remember my ocarina, don't you?" Link spoke softly to Epona, who did a soft whine.

"Oh, my! Epona usually doesn't take to strangers like that!" Malon exclaimed in surprise before running up to Link. "Hey you, you're a hero, right? Please, help Epona. Don't let her become Ganondorf's horse!"

"Malon?" Link blinked.

"How did you know my name?"

"What?! It's me, Link! Seven years ago you taught me Epona's Song!"

"And don't you remember us as well?" Peach came to her along with the others.

It finally hit Malon, "Oh! The ones from the forest! It's so nice to see you again!" she then looked at the Mario cast. "But you guys didn't seem to change that much… You look exactly the same even after seven years!"

"Um, well…" Peach stuttered, not knowing how she was going to explain this situation to Malon. That is, until another horse neigh came from the gates of Kakariko, making Peach and the rest thankful for that interruption.

But what surprised Peach was that it wasn't any sort of horse; it was Pearl! Pearl rushed up to Peach and stopped in front of her. Looking at her brooch Pearl was holding in her mouth, Peach immediately gleamed with joy:

"Pearl! It's really you!" she hugged Pearl's muzzle. After breaking from the hug, Peach took the brooch and attached it back to her dress. "You must of have looked at my brooch and remembered me, isn't that right?" Pearl nodded in response. "And you look even prettier than before!" as she pets Pearl's muzzle.

"Wow! I never thought you would become acquainted with the rarest horse species in Hyrule, Peach!" Malon ran up to the pair. "Oh, and I forgot to ask even after all these seven years: did you give her a name?"

"Yes, I did. It's Pearl."

"Pearl?! That's a pretty name!"

"I'm glad you liked it."

As Link and the others watched that conversation between Peach and Malon, Navi came out to remind the Hero of Time:

"Hey, Link! We've got something important to do!"

"Oh, right!" Link exclaimed. "Guys, I'll be heading to the graveyard. You all watch over Epona for me." he told his friends. After they nodded in response, Link made his way to the Graveyard.

"Hey, guys? Where did Link go?" Peach came back to the others with Pearl and Malon, and noticing that Link was missing.

"He went to the graveyard." Mario replied.

"Oh. Then I guess we'll just wait for him."

"By the way, something just came to me…" Malon smiled. "There's a horse salon near the coop over there! Maybe we could stylize Epona and Pearl there while we wait for Link!"

"That's a great idea! Can you boys wait for us outside?" Peach requested as she and Malon were taking Epona and Pearl away.

"Sure!" Toad nodded.

* * *

 _ **A few minutes later…**_

Rainclouds suddenly began to cover Kakariko's skies and the windmill hut started spinning like crazy before a raindrop fell on Yoshi's nose.

"Huh?" he blinked as he and the others looked up to see the rainclouds before the downpour finally started.

"Rain? At this hour?" Luigi wondered.

"Huh, so that's what the Song of Storms does." Link said while walking up to the others as the rain suddenly let up after a few seconds.

"Wait, so you can summon rain whenever you like?" Toad asked.

"It appears to be the case."

Then, the horse salon door opened up, and Peach and Malon came out with Epona and Pearl. Both Epona and Pearl's manes were brushed stylishly in a wavy style and they were both equipped with saddles and bridles. The only thing differentiating them was that Pearl's mane was decorated with pink pearls, giving her a more elegant look.

"Don't they look pretty?" Malon asked.

"Indeed!" Peach replied. She then looked at the rest of the Mario cast. "Uh, why are you all soaking wet?"

"Tell that to Link over here…" Toad directed to Link as Yoshi shook off the water while Mario and Luigi were wringing out their caps.

"Well, I just played a new tune called the Song of Storms on my ocarina, and apparently it causes a quick downpour to happen." Link explained.

" ***sigh*** it was nice meeting you all again and spending some time away from the ranch…" Malon sighed. "But I must go back or Ingo is going to abuse the horses."

"Abuse the horses?!" Peach's eyes widened. "What happened at the ranch?!"

"You see, Ingo kicked Talon out of the ranch and forced me to do all the work, or else he would hurt the horses and he knows I really hate that."

"Why would he do that…?" Yoshi asked.

"Because he became loyal to Lord Ganondorf…" the heroes gasped at that. "And he even tried to make Epona his horse before she managed to escape the ranch…"

"That's horrible…" Peach whimpered. "And I bet Pearl escaped the ranch for the exact same reason…" Pearl whined to Peach to confirm her that she was right.

"Ganondorf… How could he…" Link muttered.

"Well, I must go now." Malon began to leave. "Good luck on your journey!"

"I feel really bad for Malon…" Luigi frowned.

"We all do." Mario said.

"Okay, back to the important stuff. Did you get the item Sheik told you to get, Link?" Toad asked.

"I think I did." Link shrugged. "I just had to chase after some creepy ghost in order to get this," he showed them the Hookshot. "and then I came out of the Windmill Hut to learn the Song of Storms."

"Well, if that item will help us to reach the first temple, then we should get going then." Yoshi said with a shrug as they all exited Kakariko Village.

At Hyrule Field, Link climbed on Epona along with Yoshi and Toad, while Peach climbed on Pearl with Mario and Luigi.

"Oh my goodness, I can't believe I'm riding Pearl!" Peach squealed.

"Heh… Suddenly, your wish from seven years ago just became true." Mario chuckled.

"I know, right?"

"Hey, I have an idea…" Link smirked. "How about a race to the forest?"

"Oh, you're on!" Peach smirked back. Surprisingly enough, Epona and Pearl did the same thing.

"Alright, on your marks… GO!" both horses took off.

"Come on, Pearl! You can do it!" Peach encouraged as Pearl was in the lead.

"Faster, Epona!" Link commanded. "We must not let them win!" Epona nodded in response and gallops faster, catching up to Pearl.

"Oh no, you don't!" Peach teased. "Show them why you're a majestic horse, girl!" Pearl then gets in the lead again.

"Go, Epona, go!" Link exclaimed.

Both Epona and Pearl were neck-to-neck as they were nearing the entrance to Kokiri Forest. In the end, Pearl was the one who managed to enter the log leading to the forest first.

"YES! We won, Pearl!" Peach yelled as Pearl neighed in victory.

"Oh well, maybe next time, Epona." Link said while petting Epona's neck as she let out a snort.

"But Epona was pretty fast, nonetheless. I was impressed!" Peach complimented.

"Same to me about Pearl. She sure can run." Link replied as he and the others dismounted Epona and Pearl. He and Peach then tied their horses' bridles to the bridge's ropes. "We'll be back soon, okay?"

"Take care, Pearl." Peach smiled. "You did great out there." Pearl neighs and nods as the heroes went into Kokiri Forest.

"I wonder if Ganondorf's evil extended here, too." Navi wondered.

"Well, Rauru and Sheik said we have to break the curses on five temples and wake up the Sages sealed in each one." Link said. "If there's a temple in the forest, no doubt Ganondorf's takeover reached here as well."

"But if we combine our power with that of the Sages, we should be able to beat Ganondorf's sorcery." Mario added. "Maybe that's what the Medallions and Grand Stars are for."

Soon, they reached Kokiri Village, which surprisingly enough, it hasn't changed much even after seven years.

"Huh, not much has changed in here…" Toad remarked.

"Man, this sure brings back memories." Link smiled as they walked around. "Helllooo!" he called out, but no one answered. "That's strange… It's so quiet."

"And where are the Kokiri?" Navi asked.

Just then, a Deku Baba suddenly popped out of the ground right in front of the heroes, catching them by surprise. Link quickly slashed through it to defeat it.

"Yikes! There are monsters in the forest too?!" Luigi exclaimed.

"I guess the Kokiri must be hiding from them." Mario stated. "That explains why the forest is so silent."

"Those poor children…" Peach lamented.

"We have to break the curse on the temple in this place ASAP!" Link exclaimed as everyone rushed to the Lost Woods.

After navigating through this maze for a while, they would soon be able to reach the Sacred Forest Meadow…

…if a certain bratty Mido wasn't in their way.

"Hey! Who do you think you are?" he questioned before pointing at Link's garb. "That Kokiri-like clothing won't fool me! I promised Saria I would never let anybody go through here."

" _Oh, great… Here we go again…_ " Link thought with an annoyed look. " _That scowling face of his hasn't changed. But wait! Why is he still a kid?_ "

"Hold on a minute! Don't you recognize us?" Luigi asked, directing to himself and the rest of the Mario cast.

"Hmph, I don't even know who you are! You all look familiar, but I don't even remember you!"

"Ouch…" Yoshi winced. "That's cold…"

"If you want to see Saria that bad, I'm gonna need some proof that you're really friends of her! Something you could only have heard from her. …Not that she would ever be friends with grown-ups like you."

" _Only have heard from her… Of course!_ " Link thought and played Saria's Song from his ocarina.

"That melody?!" Mido's eyes widened. "Saria plays that song all the time! You… Do you know Saria? That song… Saria taught that song only to her friends… OK… I trust you."

" _Good._ " Link thought while smiling.

"You know, when I see you…" Mido looked at Link. "I don't know why, but I remember…him…" the heroes already knew whom he was talking about. "Hey, mister… Can you do me a favor?"

"What favor?" Link asked.

"If you see Link somewhere, tell him that… I'm sorry for acting all bratty towards him…"

Link could only blink after hearing that from Mido. Mido didn't know that he was already talking to Link because of how much he has changed, and Link still didn't know why was Mido still a child while he was an adult. The question about him really being a Kokiri once again ringed into his mind. For now, he decided to shake it off and replied:

"I will." Mido nodded in response to Link's answer and moved out of the way, allowing the heroes to progress.

Of course, the fact that Mido didn't even recognize the Mario cast didn't slip off the heroes' minds.

"I can understand Mido not recognizing Link, but why not us?" Toad questioned. "I mean, we haven't even changed, for god's sake!"

"I'm guessing it's because we just got into this world so the Kokiri including Mido didn't get a chance to know us since we left the forest immediately after we ventured into the Great Deku Tree." Mario guessed. "Not to mention it's been seven years, so we would be quickly forgotten nonetheless."

"Good point."

After entering the Sacred Forest Meadow, they got rid of a Wolfos and went into the small maze, where they noticed it was inhabited by Moblins.

"Moblins!" Navi informed. "Don't let them see you or they'll charge at you like an angry bull!"

"In that case…" Peach grinned, having an idea. "I'll make them sleep!" she casts Sleepy Time, which caused a sheep to fall down from the sky before it multiplied and land on all the Moblins' heads, putting them to sleep instantly.

"…Did you just summon multiple sheep to make these Moblins sleep?!" Link blinked.

"That was Sleepy Time. I could use either that or Peach Blossom, but the latter would make all of you sleep too."

"Well, at least they're taken care of." Navi said. "Let's go!"

However, after they came out of the maze, nearly approaching the entrance to the temple, a Club Moblin awaited them and hit the ground with his club to create shockwaves, forcing them to dodge. Mario then stomps the Club Moblin's head followed by Luigi doing the same thing as Link and the others ran past the Club Moblin, with the Hero of Time covering them.

Once he was behind the gigantic beast, Link slashed through him, and the Club Moblin fell and disappeared.

"Thanks for helping me, guys." Link thanked.

"No problem." Mario smiled.

As soon as they reached the entrance to the Forest Temple, which was inaccessible had Link not have gotten the Hookshot, they heard a noise of someone suddenly showing up as they turned to their left and saw that it was none other than Sheik.

"Sheik…" Link breathed as Sheik walked up to them.

"The flow of time is always cruel… Its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it…" she spoke. "A thing that doesn't change with time is a memory of younger days… In order to come back here again, play the Minuet of Forest."

Sheik then teaches Link the Minuet of Forest by playing her harp and he copied it on his ocarina. The second warp song has been learned.

"Everyone… I'll see you again…" Sheik said before disappearing in a flash of light.

With that, Link uses his hookshot on the tree to climb up to the temple's entrance while Toad conjured a mushroom trampoline for him and the others to jump onto and reach the top along with Link. Together, the heroes walked into the Forest Temple…

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Epona's reunion here was based off from the Manga adaptation of Ocarina of Time made by Akira Himekawa. I really love this Zelda Manga series and I happen to have the entire collection! So expect them to become inspirations for some moments in the stories of this Saga (of course, the Zelda games that had Manga adaptations of them).**

 **And because I did not want to left out the horse race, I thought, "Hey, why not have Epona and Pearl race?"**

 **It's off to the Forest Temple! Until then! Please review!**


	10. The Forest Temple

**Here's the next chapter!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: The Forest Temple**

The Forest Temple looked like an abandoned mansion or a stronghold. The whole place, seemingly abandoned for years was old and falling apart, with only a few remains left, such as columns and walls, the latter now covered in vines stretching all the way to the roofless top. Vegetation took over the entire place and dead souls who possess odd magic are now roaming around the temple. In short, this place was very eerie.

The moment our heroes took their first step forward, they were instantly greeted by two Wolfos.

"Talk about a warm welcome…" Link sweatdropped as he fended off their attacks and defeated one of them. And just when the other Wolfos was about to attack Link from behind, Luigi shot a lightning bolt at it, which finished it off for good. "Oh… Nice use of that lightning." Link said, noticing what Luigi just did.

"Thanks." Luigi nodded.

"…Hey, where's Toad?" Peach asked, looking around.

"Up here!" Toad called out as everyone looked up to see him on a tree branch. "I noticed a treasure chest on top of this tree while you were battling the Wolfos so I made a mushroom trampoline to propel myself up here."

"And what was inside that chest?" Yoshi asked.

"…A key." Toad showed everyone the key.

"What." Yoshi deadpanned.

" _Yep, Toad just jinxed it._ " Luigi thought, remembering what Toad said back at their very first dungeon.

"Seriously, let's just stop questioning anything that's nonsense to us…" Mario sweatdropped.

"I'm with Mario." Navi agreed.

"Yeah, let's just go." Link finished as Toad hopped off and everyone made their way inside.

At the interior hallway, they took out a Big Skulltula and reached the main room, where they saw four torches lit in different colored flames and there was an elevator in the middle.

Suddenly, the flames dissipated, each turning into four Poes of the respective flame color. These were the four Poe Sisters: Amy, the youngest, was green. Beth, the second youngest, was blue. Joelle, the second oldest, was orange. Meg, the eldest, was purple.

Of course, due to his fear of ghosts, Luigi paled up at the sight of the Poe Sisters. Everyone watched the flames reappear at the Poe Sisters' torches before they flew away in different directions, letting out sinister cackles in unison as the elevator in the middle sank into the floor.

"Oh thank god, they're gone." Luigi sighed in relief. "Golly, even the way they laughed at us sent a chill down my spine…"

"Okay, I will admit; those Poes _did_ seem a bit creepy, so you're not alone, Luigi." Link admitted.

Mario then looked around the room. "I can see three available doors at the moment, so the best course is for us to split up."

"One of them is locked, though." Toad pointed out. "But at least we can unlock it with the key I just got." he unlocks the door with the key.

"And another one has a weird-looking block in the front." Yoshi added.

"A block?" Link walked over to it; it was a Time Block. "That symbol… I wonder…" he takes out his ocarina and plays the Song of Time, which caused the block to disappear, much to everyone's surprise. "Whoa…" Link awed.

"That was a Time Block." Navi informed. "Playing the Song of Time apparently removes it."

"All right… I'll go through the door in the middle."

"Mind if we go with you, Link?" Mario asked as he and Luigi came over.

"Sure."

"Then I, Yoshi and Toad will take the Time Block path." Peach offered. "We'll all meet back here."

"Right. And make sure you keep an eye for the Poes we just saw."

Everyone nodded and split up to their respective doors.

* * *

 _ **With Link, Mario and Luigi…**_

They first took care of a Blue Bubble, a flying skull monster surrounded by blue flames, and went into the next room, which was more of a dead end… until two Stalfos emerged out of the floor.

"Are those… living skeletons?!" Luigi flinched.

"Those are Stalfos!" Navi informed. "They used to be normal human adults, but after getting lost in the Lost Woods, they turned into this!"

"Yikes…" Mario grimaced, disturbed by this fact.

"Well, we have to take them out… considering we're locked in at the moment!" Link exclaimed, drawing his sword and shield to engage one of the Stalfos while the Mario Bros engaged the other.

Luigi shot a green fireball at the Stalfos, but it easily blocked it and slashed down at the brothers. They avoided the attack with Luigi jumping and Mario ducking, and while Luigi was in the air, he attempted to stomp its head, but it rose its shield above its head to avoid the stomping.

"Okay, this guy might be just reduced to bones, but he's really clever." Mario stated before ducking to avoid another slash from the Stalfos.

With Link, he blocked the other Stalfos's attack with his shield and countered before going all out on it, but it remained on guard. Link then did a low swing, cutting out the Stalfos's legs, making it angry and retaliated, but Link rolled out of the way and did one last swing to finally tear it apart.

Seeing what Link has done, Mario decided to go for the same strategy and did a low kick to knock away the Stalfos's legs, and when it began to retaliate, Mario brought out his hammer and swung it down at the Stalfos, crushing it into pieces.

"Good thing they're made out of bones, otherwise this strategy wouldn't work." Mario remarked before putting his hammer away.

Then, a treasure chest appeared in the middle and the door was unlocked. Link opened the chest, and pulled out…

"Another key?" he had an eyebrow raised.

"How many keys this temple has?" Luigi questioned.

"Who knows?" Mario shrugged. "Let's just go back to the main room."

Once they went back to the main room, they immediately met up with Peach, Yoshi and Toad.

"Oh, you're back. So, how did it go for you?" Link asked.

"Nothing much." Toad replied. "We just went into a well and found another key in a chest."

"We also got the map of this place." Yoshi added, showing everyone the Dungeon Map.

"Unfortunately, we found no sight of any of those Poes." Peach said. "How about you, boys?"

"We just fought a pair of Stalfos and were rewarded with another key." Link replied. "I guess the Poes must be in the door Toad just unlocked." he pointed at the remaining door. "But since we have a lot of keys, this will make navigating around this dungeon much easier."

They then went into the door, defeating a Big Skulltula in the way and went into the door behind it, which took them to a maze with blocks to push to go forward. They ended up on the second floor of the dungeon and after defeating two Blue Bubbles, they unlocked the door with one of the keys, taking them to… a twisted corridor.

"Okay, this is disorienting." Navi said, feeling a bit dizzy as they were going through it until they reached another room, but the wall was now technically the ground.

Just then, a shadow appeared below them, revealing to be a Wallmaster that tried to grab Luigi, but Link quickly killed it before they unlocked another door with the last key they had.

On the next room, they just went down the stairs and entered another door, leading them to a circular room where they had to fight three Stalfos this time. Once they were defeated, a chest showed up in the middle and Link opened it, pulling out the Fairy Bow with some Arrows.

"Nice." he grinned and then everyone went all the way back to the room before the twisted corridor.

There, Link shot an arrow at the eye switch above the door, untwisting the corridor in the next room, allowing them to reach a treasure chest containing the Boss Key.

Now it was time to hunt for the Poe Sisters, but they first had to do some backtracking to get another Small Key by defeating a Floormaster. They first got Joelle and Beth by having Link just shoot their portraits with his bow and then defeating them once they were forced out of the portraits. The flames they carried were restored to the main room, but defeating Beth also caused a chest to appear, and this one held the Compass.

To reach the other sister, they had to go through a normal corridor and reach a room with four spinning platforms with a torch in the middle, and there was an eye switch encased in ice. But before Link could shoot an arrow at the torch, Mario just shot a fireball to melt the ice encasing the eye switch, making things easier for Link.

" _If only I had those kind of powers like them…_ " Link thought before shooting an arrow at the eye switch.

When the arrow hit the eye switch, the normal corridor from the previous room became twisted, which allowed the heroes to drop down and reach a room… with a falling ceiling.

After braving through this dangerous room, they went into the next room where they found themselves doing a block puzzle, which had Amy's image on it. After they completed the puzzle, Amy revealed herself, only to get destroyed by them within a minute. After all, it was six against one.

When they went back to the main room, where three of the four torches were restored, they looked down to see the remaining sister, Meg, mourning the loss of her younger sisters. And when the heroes approached her, she got angry at them and split herself into four copies.

"Oh great, which one is the real one?!" Link wondered as the four Megs were circling around them.

The Megs cackled, making sure that they were terrifying Luigi, which was successful obviously, and tried to hit him, but Link did a spin attack that hit all of the Megs, causing all but one to disappear, thus revealing the real one.

"Somehow, having Luigi get scared really helped!" Link remarked before striking down the real Meg, immediately killing her.

"Way for you to throw ME into this…" Luigi rolled his eyes.

Anyway… With the last Poe Sister defeated and the last flame restored, the elevator in the middle rose back up. They made their way down the elevator, where a final puzzle awaited them. And what this puzzle was about? Moving a wall.

After finally uncovering the hallway leading to the Boss Room, they went in there, using the Boss Key to unlock the door. The room they ended up in was circular and filled with the exact same paintings on the wall.

"Nothing but a bunch of paintings." Toad said.

"Somehow, this reminds me of one of my oldest adventures…" Mario mused.

"Perhaps they function similarly?" Luigi guessed with a shrug.

All of a sudden, the only entrance they came from was blocked as the heroes turned around to look at it in surprise. Eventually, a horse neigh came in, so the heroes turned again, and much to their shock, they saw… Ganondorf and his horse.

Wait, what?! How did they get here so quietly?

"WHAT THE?! GANONDORF?!" Link yelled. "WHERE did you come from?!"

"Ganondorf? Oh, you are sorely mistaken…" Ganondorf(?) chuckled evilly before a skull mask appeared on his face. "I am Phantom Ganon, the Evil Spirit from Beyond! And you shall be destroyed!" he declared as his horse suddenly began to float into the air before he commanded it to gallop into one of the paintings.

And by saying into the painting, I actually mean in a literal way.

"Did he just go into the painting?!" Link asked.

"I knew something was up with those paintings…" Mario muttered.

"Uh, guys? He's coming to us from that one!" Luigi pointed at the painting from the opposite end, seeing Phantom Ganon coming before leaping out of the painting with the use of dark magic and was about to fire lightning bolts at the heroes with his staff.

"Link! Shoot him with an arrow!" Navi instructed.

Acting quickly and listening to his fairy companion, Link fired an arrow at Phantom Ganon before he had the chance to attack them, and then he retreated into another painting.

Everyone kept an eye on each painting, waiting for Phantom Ganon to appear. Luigi once again saw Phantom Ganon coming from the painting he was looking.

"Over there!" he called out.

"No, wait! He's over here!" Yoshi also called out, seeing Phantom Ganon in the painting he was keeping an eye on. Wait… there are two Phantom Ganons?

"Oh, dang… One of them is the real one!" Mario exclaimed. "Keep watching him, you two!"

Luigi and Yoshi nodded and kept looking at their respective paintings, until the Phantom Ganon in Yoshi's painting suddenly turned around while the one in Luigi's painting began to come out.

"Hey! The one I'm watching just turned around!" Yoshi exclaimed.

"WOAH! Then mine is the real one!" Luigi flinched as he avoided a lightning bolt attack from the real Phantom Ganon as he emerged out of the painting.

"Hold still!" Link exclaimed and fired another arrow at Phantom Ganon.

"Argh! Little pests!" Phantom Ganon growled. "You are very troublesome… I shall deal with you by myself!" he gets off his horse, letting it ride away into the painting, before hovering in the air by himself, staff in hand.

Phantom Ganon's staff pulsated with energy and launched an energy ball at them, forcing them to dodge as Link fired an arrow at him, but it went through him and he rammed his staff at Link, knocking him down. He quickly recovered just in time to block Phantom Ganon when he tried to ram into him, sending him back a little bit.

Peach then fired a beam of light at Phantom Ganon, but he blocked it with his staff. He then flew down to attack her, only for Toad to come to her and counter Phantom Ganon's attack by releasing mushroom spores at him (the same thing he does during Peach's new Neutral Special Move animation from Smash Bros Ultimate), damaging him a little.

"Grr! Begone!" Phantom Ganon yelled and fired another energy ball at Peach and Toad. On instinct, Mario rushed to the pair and ended up kicking the energy ball back at Phantom Ganon, and because he didn't see that coming, he was hit by it and was stunned. "Aaargh!"

" _Huh?_ " Mario thought, processing what just happened. " _The energy balls he creates… can be deflected back? In that case…_ " he looked back at the rest, who were just knocked to the ground by Phantom Ganon punching the ground to create a shockwave.

"Guys!" Navi cried out.

"Hey, Navi!" Mario called out. "Tell them to reflect the energy ball back at him!"

"Right!" Navi then told the rest of the heroes just that, and when Phantom Ganon sent out another energy ball, Link swung his sword at it to reflect it back, but was surprised to see that Phantom Ganon actually reflected it back at him.

"GAH!" Link didn't react in time and was hit by the energy ball. Phantom Ganon chuckled darkly by his success.

" _Oh, so it's like tennis, huh?_ " Peach thought with a smirk on her face. " _I knew winning the 1-Up Mushroom Cup was worth it!_ " she takes out her Tennis Racket. "Let me handle this one!"

"Nngh… Okay…" Link groaned.

Phantom Ganon conjured another energy ball and shot it at Peach, but she swung her tennis racket to send it back, only for him to knock it back at her and so on. The volley continued for a few seconds until the energy ball finally hits Phantom Ganon as he screamed in agony before dissolving into blue flames in midair.

"Looks like I have better tennis skills than him!" Peach teased before putting her tennis racket away.

"Nice one, Peach!" Mario praised.

Peach thanked him back before heading over to Link and healing him. Then, shortly after Link was fully healed, they suddenly heard Ganondorf's voice echoing around the room:

" _ **Hey, you all did quite well… It looks like you may be gaining some slight skill… But you have defeated only my phantom… When you fight the real me, it won't be so easy! What a worthless creation that ghost was! I will banish it to the gap between dimensions!"**_

"Ganondorf…" Link muttered. "We have to be strong enough in order to defeat him…"

"That must be why we must awake the Sages. They should be able to grant us immense power." Mario said.

A blue light appeared in the middle and they all went into it, transporting them to the Chamber of the Sages. The green platform emitted a blue light, possibly revealing the Sage of Forest, and it turned out to be none other than Saria!

"Thank you… Because of you, I could awaken as a Sage…" Saria said. "I am Saria. The Sage of the Forest Temple…"

"You…? The Sage of Forest?" Link breathed.

"I always believed that you would come. Because I know you…" Saria looked at Link.

"Really? You already know that I'm-…"

"No… You don't have to explain it to me… Because it is destiny that you and I can't live in the same world."

"Saria…"

"Link. I will stay here as the Forest Sage and help you… Now, please take these…"

Saria then rose her hands to the air as a green Medallion and a green Grand Star rained down towards the heroes as Link took the former while the Mario cast took the latter.

"I shall grant my powers of the forest into these… The Forest Medallion and the Grand Star of Forest!" Saria declared.

Everything went white for our heroes as they heard Saria's final words:

" _I will always be…your friend…"_

* * *

The heroes soon were taken to the Great Deku Tree, but there was something dug into the ground in front of it as they curiously looked down at it… when it suddenly emerged out of the ground by itself, catching the heroes by such surprise that they were flown backwards while screaming.

"Hi there! I'm the Deku Tree sprout!" it spoke. "Because you and Saria broke the curse on the Forest Temple, I can grow and flourish! Thanks a lot!"

"Excuse us?" Link raised an eyebrow as he and the others walked towards the Deku Tree sprout.

"Hey, have you seen your old friends? None of them recognized you with your grown-up body, did they?" the Deku Tree sprout asked Link.

"No, they didn't." Link shook his head. "But I'm still wondering how come I've aged and they haven't."

"That's because the Kokiri never grow up! Even after seven years, they're still kids!"

"What?!"

"Well, as you might have already guessed, you are not a Kokiri! You are actually a Hylian!"

"I'm a… Hylian all along?"

"Yep, just like Princess Zelda! I am happy to finally reveal this secret to you!"

"Dear Hylia… But, how did I end up in this forest in the first place?"

"Allow me to tell you what happened…"

" _So, technically he's still the Great Deku Tree?_ " Link thought as he and his friends listened to the Deku Tree sprout's story:

"Some time ago, before the king of Hyrule unified this country, there was a fierce war in our world. One day, amid the fires of war… You were born to the house of a knight in service to the king. However, your father died in battle. Although she was mortally wounded, your mother took you… and desperately fled the burning palace… into this forbidden forest. During her last breaths, she entrusted you to the Deku Tree, the guardian spirit of the forest. The Deku Tree could sense that you were a child of destiny whose fate would affect the entire world, so he took him into the forest. After your mother passed away, you were raised as a Kokiri. And now, finally, the day of destiny has come!"

Link just stood there in silence, shock filled his face. He grew up always believing he was a Kokiri and not remembering anything about his past. Everything was now making sense to him; that's the reason why a fairy partner would never come to him since he was not really a Kokiri. What's worse is that he never actually got to see his father, since he was in the middle of war, and while he did see his mother, he couldn't remember her face since he was still a baby. But one thing still didn't make sense to him: why is he the one chosen for this task? More specifically, why HIM, out of all people?

"You are a Hylian and were always bound to leave this forest." the Deku Tree sprout said, snapping Link out of his thoughts. "And now…you have learned your own destiny… So you know what you must do… You must save the land of Hyrule! Now, break the curses on all of the temples, and return peace to Hyrule!"

"I'll do it. Along with my friends." Link replied. "But… I'm wondering, why me out of all people must do this task?"

"Hmm… That I actually don't know. But you have no choice but to accept your fate. Now go and save the land of Hyrule from the King of Darkness, Hero of Time. Oh, and you too, Heroes from Another World! Save this world from your worst arch-nemesis, known to us as the Tyrant King!"

" _Tyrant… King? Our worst arch-nemesis?_ " the Mario cast thought. " _Could that be…?_ "

"It was a surprise to learn that Saria is one of the Sages, wasn't it, guys?" Navi spoke up, changing the subject entirely. "I wonder how Sheik knew?"

"Beats us." Luigi shrugged.

"Anyway, off to Hyrule Field!"

Everyone nodded as they took off and Link, Yoshi and Toad mounted on Epona while Peach, Mario and Luigi mounted on Pearl and both galloped to Hyrule Field, leaving Kokiri Forest behind.

" _Someday, I'll know why I was chosen to be a hero…_ " Link thought.

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **I always liked the Forest Temple's music. It's so mysterious and eerie, but it doesn't help the fact that this temple can be quite confusing to navigate...**

 **Poor Luigi having to suffer more ghost shenanigans, but at least they're for comical moments.**

 **Finally, what better opportunity for Phantom Ganon's second phase of his battle to have a little game of tennis between him and Peach with her tennis racket? ;D**

 **Next up, the Fire Temple at Death Mountain! See you next time! Please review!**


	11. The Fire Temple

**Done with the next chapter!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 11: The Fire Temple**

"So, where to next?" Link asked as they were galloping across the field.

"Well, I have written all the locations Sheik mentioned to us in my notebook." Toad said. "The next location she told us to go after the deep forest was a high mountain, which is obviously Death Mountain."

"Then we have our next destination!" Navi exclaimed. "To Death Mountain!"

With that, they galloped past Kakariko Village and into Death Mountain. Once they reached the entrance to Goron City, Link and Peach tied up Epona and Pearl respectively before they and the others went into the city.

However, just like Kokiri Forest, Goron City was nothing more of a ghost town… Or maybe a ghost cave? Anyway, unlike Kokiri Forest, there were no enemies in sight, so it was just empty.

"It's so quiet in here too…" Mario looked around. "Something bad must've happened."

"All of the races we've met back seven years… They're all being threatened by Ganondorf now…" Peach lamented.

"Hey, do you hear something?" Yoshi asked as he started to hear rolling noises.

" ***gasp*** Everyone, move!" Luigi gasped as he moved out of the way while pushing everyone else just in time as two small rolling Gorons moved past them.

"Hey! Hold up!" Link called out for the Gorons, but they didn't listen and kept rolling away.

"Well, at least we know that this city isn't completely empty." Toad stated.

"Yeah, but how are we going to get those Gorons to stop?"

"Maybe I can do that." Peach grinned before thrusting her hand forward. "Psych Bomb!"

Eventually, bombs magically rained down on the two Gorons, causing them to stop rolling once the bombs exploded. Link was astonished at what just happened.

" _First she's able to pluck out bombs from the ground, and now she can summon a rain of bombs… Okay, then._ " he thought as the heroes ran after the two Gorons.

"How could you do this to us? You – you're Ganondorf's servants!" one of the Gorons hissed. "Hear our names, and tremble! I am Link!"

"And I am Mario!" the other Goron joined in. "And we're the Heroes of the Gorons!"

"Whoa, whoa! Take it easy, you two!" Link put his hands up in defense. Then he did a double take once he heard the names of the Gorons, "Wait a second… Did you two say that your names are Link and Mario?"

"That's right!" the Goron named Mario nodded.

"…But that's our names!" Link directed to him and Mario, who also had a surprised expression.

"What? Your names are also Link and Mario?" the Goron named Link said. "Then you and all of you must be the legendary Dodongo Busters and Heroes, Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad!"

"Our dad is Darunia… Do you remember him?" the Goron named Mario asked. "Dad named each of us these names after you all, because you're so brave! They're cool names! We really like it!"

"Oh, it was nothing…" Luigi rubbed his head sheepishly.

"Wow, I can't believe there were Gorons named after us!" Yoshi beamed.

"I guess we're a legend in this city." Mario chuckled.

"You're all heroes to us Gorons! We're so glad to meet you!" the Goron named Link chimed.

"But where are the other Gorons named after us?" Toad asked while directing to him, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi. "And most importantly, where is Darunia?"

"Oh… This is where we require your help! Our dad, Darunia, went to the Fire Temple. A dragon is inside!"

"And that dragon, named Volvagia, was the one who ate the rest of the Gorons named after you!" the Goron named Mario added.

Luigi jawdropped. "Not cool…"

"If we don't hurry up, even our dad will be eaten by the dragon!"

"Don't worry, we're not going to let that happen. In fact, the Fire Temple is where we're heading next." Mario said.

"Is that so? You'll help us?" the Goron named Link asked.

"Absolutely! We'll put a stop to Volvagia."

"Yeah!" the rest of the heroes threw in.

"Thank you so much!" the Goron named Link thanked. "The temple is located at the mountain's crater. The heat in there is really hot, so I'm giving you this heat-resistant tunic, Link!" he hands Link the Goron Tunic.

"Do you guys need one as well?" the Goron named Mario asked the Mario cast.

"No, we don't mind the heat." Mario shook his head.

"Fair enough."

"Well, might as well try this on." Link said as the Mario cast turned around to give him privacy to switch his Kokiri Tunic to the Goron Tunic, which looked exactly like his original tunic, except it was colored red. "So, how do I look?" he asked once he finished changing.

"You know, red does look good on you." Navi answered.

With that, they waved the two Gorons goodbye and exited the city. Outside, they climbed up the mountain to reach the Death Mountain Crater.

"Geez, are you sure you guys didn't need a tunic like me?" Link questioned. "It's freaking hot in here!"

"We've been to a lot of hot places in our world, so heat doesn't bother us that much." Mario replied.

They made their way to the broken bridge up ahead, with Link using his hookshot to reach the other side while the Mario cast just jumped across, and at this moment, Sheik showed up in front of them once again.

"It is something that grows over time… a true friendship. A feeling in the heart that becomes even stronger over time…" she spoke. "The passion of friendship will soon blossom into a righteous power, and through it, you will know which way to go… This song is dedicated to the power of the heart… Listen to the Bolero of Fire…"

Sheik then teaches Link another warp song, the Bolero of Fire, allowing him to warp back to this area anytime he wanted.

"Everyone… I'll see you again…" she disappears again.

After that, the heroes made their way to the Fire Temple's entrance.

* * *

The Fire Temple used to be a shrine to honor the Hero of the Gorons. There was a legend about a ferocious dragon, who turns out to be Volvagia, living in the depths of Death Mountain whose main delicacy consisted of Gorons, but the Hero of the Gorons, wielding a legendary hammer called the Megaton Hammer, put a stop to this beast and defeated it. Unfortunately, Ganondorf has revived Volvagia, so he was able to roam free again. It is said that according to the Gorons, Darunia is the descendant of that Hero.

The interior of this temple was very hot like the crater itself. Torches lit the rooms and hallways, narrow walkways loomed over deep lava pits, and the walls of the temple bore carvings of dancing Gorons and fire-breathing dragons, likely to represent Volvagia.

At the entrance, the heroes got rid of some pesky Fire Keese flying around. Since the door on the right was locked, they went to the door on the left.

To their surprise, they saw none other than Darunia on the other side of the room!

"Is that… Darunia?!" Navi asked in surprise.

"Who's there? Is that you, guys…?" Darunia blinked. "Oh! Brothers! Sister! It's good to see you again! I want to have a talk with you, but now's not the time."

"Why not?" Link asked.

"Ganondorf is causing trouble on Death Mountain again! He has revived the evil, ancient dragon Volvagia! On top of that, he is going to feed my people to that evil dragon as a warning to other races who might resist him… AND his comrade. If that fire-breathing dragon escapes from the mountain, all of Hyrule will become a burning wasteland!"

" _Oh, god…_ " the heroes thought.

"I will go on ahead to try to seal up the evil dragon… I'm concerned, though, because I don't have the legendary hammer, the Megaton Hammer… But I have no choice. Everyone…I'm asking you to do this as my Sworn Brothers and Sister… While I'm trying to deal with the dragon, please save my people! The prisoners' cells are in the opposite direction. I'm counting on you all!"

"Okay, we'll do it." Peach replied. "Please be safe, Darunia…"

With that, Darunia somehow goes through the Boss Door before it shuts tight again.

Following Darunia's advice, the heroes freed the first Goron at the left side of the room, and once he left, they opened a chest inside the prison that contained a Small Key. With this key in hand, they went back to the temple's entrance and unlocked the door on the right.

It led them to a large room with three different paths to choose from, so the heroes decided to split up: Link, Mario, and Luigi went to the left, while Peach, Yoshi, and Toad went to the right.

Both teams freed a Goron and got each a Small Key in the chest inside the prison. However, with Link and the Mario Bros, in addition to getting a key, they also spotted a Time Block above the door they just went through, so Link played the Song of Time to move it magically down to the lower level, allowing them to climb on it to reach another door.

On the other side, they were attacked by flying floor tiles in which Link destroyed them by blocking with his shield. But then, a Like Like came next as they tried to attack it, but it wasn't doing any good. And to top it off… the Like Like ends up swallowing Luigi.

"HEEELP!" Luigi screamed before the Like Like swallowed him whole.

"LUIGI!" Mario yelled.

"What the heck is that disgusting thing?!" Link asked.

"That's a Like Like!" Navi informed. "It'll eat anything in its path!"

Angered, Mario absorbs a Fire Flower to turn into Fire Mario and readies a large fireball on his palm.

"Give me back my brother, you ugly slimy thing!" he hissed before tossing the fireball at the Like Like, causing it to melt away, revealing Luigi in the middle.

"Mama mia…" he groaned. "I thought I was a goner!"

"Whew, glad you're okay, Luigi." Link sighed in relief. "But what was that flower you just pulled out, Mario?"

"That was a Fire Flower." Fire Mario replied. "It can grant anyone the ability to shoot fire. But since I already have fire powers, the Fire Flower improves my fire abilities, so they're a lot stronger than before. Same goes with Luigi."

"That's right." Luigi nodded.

"Intriguing!" Navi beamed.

Soon, the two teams reunited and progressed more through the temple together.

* * *

 _ **Later…**_

They were now at the third floor of the dungeon after they just passed by some more rooms: a maze with rolling boulders where they freed two more captive Gorons, a narrow path that had the Dungeon Map somewhere around, and a room with metal grating platforms… and a wall of fire chasing after them.

They were now in a maze consisting of fire pillars as the maze's walls. They rescued another captive Goron and found the Compass in a secret room before going through a door.

Once they got inside the new room, they were suddenly locked in and a Flare Dancer emerged out of the fire pillar at the center. The Flare Dancer spun in place to create red and blue flames to attack the heroes. They avoided the flames and then Mario and Luigi, who were now under the effects of the Ice Flower this time, doused the red flames with ice while Peach, under the effects of the Fire Flower, and Yoshi, who absorbed a Power Flower, doused the blue flames with fire.

Meanwhile, Link tried to shoot an arrow at the Flare Dancer's head, but it did nothing.

"Try using the hookshot, Link!" Navi suggested.

Link did as he was told and used the hookshot instead. Doing that actually removed the head from the Flare Dancer and its body disappeared. With that, Link did a single sword strike at it, causing it to explode. The rest of the flames vanished as well and Yoshi's Power Flower effect wore off.

The pillar of fire in the middle also vanished, so the heroes climbed on top of it, which it turned out to be an elevator. That's when they found the Megaton Hammer in a certain room.

* * *

 _ **Some time later…**_

With Link wielding the Megaton Hammer, he and the others made their way around the temple some more until they eventually found the Boss Key right after saving the last imprisoned Goron. Now that they had the Boss Key, they could finally reach the Boss Room where Darunia went.

Inside the Boss Room, however, they found no trace of Darunia and instead was just an empty room with a circular platform with magma holes up ahead. The moment they jumped on it, the whole place started to rumble, catching the heroes by surprise.

The platform they used to get to the arena sinks back into the lava before a giant, serpentine-like red dragon emerged out of the central magma hole. That was Volvagia, the Subterranean Lava Dragon.

"That must be Volvagia!" Navi exclaimed. "Oh, look out!" she saw that Volvagia was opening his mouth in order to breathe fire at the heroes.

Thanks to Navi's warning, the heroes avoided the fiery breath, but unfortunately, a tiny bit of Fire Peach's dress was caught by the fire, and the Power-Up's effect on her wore off.

"My dress!" she yelped as she quickly doused the small flame on her dress before everyone watched Volvagia dive into another hole.

"What's this, Whack-a-Mole? Ugh…" Link groaned.

"Yeah, except it's Whack-a-Dragon." Yoshi spoke in amusement.

"Still not funny…"

Just then, Volvagia emerged out from a hole that's not too far away from where Link was standing so he made his way to it. However, Volvagia breathed fire at him, only for Ice Mario and Ice Luigi to counter the fire by shooting a blast of ice. Part of the icy blast went into Volvagia's mouth, causing him to roar in pain, giving Link the chance to whack his head with the Megaton Hammer and deliver a few hits on his head, removing bits of his mask.

Roaring furiously, Volvagia flew all the way up at the ceiling in order to knock loose several large boulders at the heroes. Link quickly shielded his head with the shield while the Mario cast was running around, making sure to avoid the shadows on the floor since those were where the boulders would land.

Then, before Volvagia could fly into another hole, the Ice Mario Bros acted quickly and fired another icy blast at him, which forced him down on the ground, allowing Link to whack his head with the hammer to break apart the rest of his helmet and finished him off by stabbing his sword right into the dragon's forehead.

Volvagia roared in pain as his body began to incinerate, and all of his flesh was gone, now reduced to bones with only his head remaining. The heroes watched the bones and the head falling back down before the latter exploded while the Power-Up effect on Mario and Luigi wore off.

A blue light showed up on the floor so the heroes walked over to it, transporting them back to the Chamber of the Sages. The red platform started to glow, and Darunia himself emerged out, revealing that he was the Sage of Fire all along.

"Darunia!" Link exclaimed.

"Thank you, Brothers and Sister! I really appreciate what you did." Darunia smiled. "I thank you on behalf of the entire Goron race! You turned out to be real men and woman, just as I thought you would! By the way, I, the wild Darunia, turned out to be the great Sage of Fire… Isn't that funny? Well, this must be what they call destiny. Nothing has made me happier than helping you seal the evil here!"

"You're welcome, Darunia." Peach replied with a smile.

"I appreciate it, Sister. Now, take these with you!"

Darunia rose his hands into the air as a red Medallion and a red Grand Star rained down towards the heroes. Link took the Medallion while the Mario cast took the Grand Star.

"These are the Fire Medallion and the Grand Star of Fire. They both contain the power of the fire spirits – and my friendship." Darunia said.

Everything went white for our heroes as Darunia said his final words to them:

" _Don't forget… Now you and I are true Brothers and Sister!"_

* * *

They were sent back to the Death Mountain Crater, and once they walked out of this place, they started a conversation:

"We have awakened two Sages so far." Peach said.

"Just three more left!" Yoshi added.

"What's our next destination now?" Luigi asked.

"According to my notebook, the next location is under a vast lake." Toad informed.

"Vast lake… Lake Hylia!" Navi piped up.

"Guess we're off to see the Zoras next!" Mario smiled.

"Good timing too, because I really want to go someplace to cool off after this intense heat!" Link exclaimed.

With no time to waste, they first decided to head to Zora's Domain just to check on the Zoras.

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Personally, I wasn't that satisfied with this chapter because the Fire Temple in the game was a bit boring in my opinion, so it was hard to write this one. Of course, that doesn't even compare to the next major temple...**

 **Well, until the next chapter! Please review!**


	12. The Water Temple

**I originally thought of making the Ice Cavern a separate chapter, but that seemed too short, especially for a mini-dungeon. So I decided to include it here along with the Water Temple, though I'm leaving the Boss Fight for the next one.**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 12: The Water Temple**

The heroes were slowly riding along in Hyrule Field, towards Zora's River. After tying up Epona and Pearl near the river's entrance, they made their way there, and so far nothing has changed.

But that will soon not be the case because as they progressed further, the place started to become… colder than usual. Not to mention it started to snow. Wait, snow?

"Is it me, or is this place getting… colder?" Link awed, starting to shiver.

"Nope, you're not the only one." Mario replied.

"But still, why is it snowing in here?" Yoshi wondered.

"Hold on… I can feel an artic wind blowing from Zora's Domain…" Navi breathed. "Do you feel it too?"

"Now that you tell us, I can feel it as well." Toad said.

"Did something happen in the domain?" Luigi asked.

"We better check it out." Peach ushered.

They all agreed with her and immediately took off to Zora's Domain.

As soon as they got there, what everyone saw around them was nothing more than a winter wasteland: all of the water had been frozen and there were no sight of the Zoras either.

"Oh my goodness…" Peach breathed.

"The whole domain has been frozen!" Mario's eyes widened.

"Brr… A-And now it's very c-cold…" Luigi shivered.

"By going someplace to cool off after going into a volcano, I didn't mean _that_!" Link remarked.

"Yeah, we got your point, Link." Toad threw in.

"I just hope there aren't any Zoras trapped under the ice…" Yoshi whispered, earning a gasp from everyone else; if there were really Zoras underneath the frozen water, they could all die!

"Oh, I hope not!" Navi exclaimed. "But we should check on the king!"

Everyone followed Navi's advice and went to the throne room, and much to their surprise, they saw King Zora frozen in red ice.

"Oh my!" Navi flinched.

"No… He's been frozen too!" Peach exclaimed.

"But why is the ice he's trapped in red?" Toad wondered.

"No idea, but I'll try to get him out of there!" Mario then tosses a fireball at the red ice, but strangely enough, nothing happened. "What?"

"Let me try." Link offered. "Din's Fire!" he unleashed the Din's Fire spell… but he was met with the same results. "Seriously?!"

"Something's odd with this ice…" Yoshi suspected. "Let me check something." he flutter jumps towards the frozen king and cautiously touches the ice. Surprisingly enough, the ice felt hot instead of cold. "What in the…?"

"What did you find out, Yoshi?" Luigi asked.

"Guys, this ice isn't cold… It's hot."

"What?!" the rest of the group flinched.

"Hot ice… That's _totally_ new!" Toad exclaimed.

"Then I guess that since this ice is hot, natural fire won't melt it." Mario guessed.

"So we need to find cold fire?" Luigi added. "WHERE in the world are we going to find that?!"

"Perhaps we should head to Zora's Fountain to look for clues." Navi suggested.

Everyone agreed with her and went to Zora's Fountain, where once again everything around them was frozen, with icy platforms floating above the cold water. But most importantly… Jabu-Jabu was nowhere to be found.

"Um, where is Jabu-Jabu?" Yoshi asked. "He was just here at that spot! And now he's… gone."

"Just like the Zoras…" Peach added. "I hope he's alright."

They then made across the icy platforms, where Link ended up slipping a few times but Mario and Yoshi grabbed him before he fell into the frigid water. Soon, they finally made it to the entrance of the Ice Cavern and went inside.

* * *

As soon as they stepped in, a few stalactites dropped down near them. Luckily, no one was hit, but now they knew that stalactites could drop at any moment, so they kept mindful of those. Up ahead, they were attacked by three Freezards, only for Link to get rid of them in an instant with Din's Fire.

In the next room, there were two giant spinning ice blades in the middle, and the heroes had to collect five Silver Rupees in order to progress further. Eventually, they reached the next room, where Yoshi caught sight of a blue flame on a pedestal:

"Ooh! Look at that beautiful blue fire!" he awed as the rest was taking care of the Ice Keese and Freezards, with Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad in their Fire forms.

"Did you just say… blue fire?" Fire Mario asked. "Where?"

"Up there!"

Everyone went up the platform where the Blue Fire was and stared at it in fascination.

"Intriguing…" Link inspected. "Could this be the cold fire we're looking for?" he reached his hand to touch it, only to pull it back immediately after feeling a chill from the fire. "Whoa, it IS cold fire!"

"Awesome! Just what we needed!" Fire Toad cheered as Link stored some Blue Fire into bottles.

"There could be more things waiting for us deeper in this cavern, though." Fire Peach stated.

"You're right." Link agreed. "Let's keep moving."

* * *

 _ **Some hours later…**_

They eventually reached the final room of this mini-dungeon, where they were confronted by a White Wolfos. The Fire Mario cast plus Yoshi's Power Flower ability weakened the beast with fire, while Link delivered sword strikes at it. They repeated the same strategy until it was defeated, and the fire power-ups on the Mario cast wore off.

A treasure chest appeared shortly after the White Wolfos's defeat. Link walked up to it and opened it up, revealing a pair of Iron Boots. When the heroes turned around, to their surprise, Sheik was standing in front of the door.

"We meet again…" she spoke as the heroes walked closer to her. "If you came here to meet the Zoras, you wasted your time… This is all there is… With one exception, the Zoras are now sealed under this thick ice sheet…"

" _No…_ " the heroes thought. Apparently, the Zoras were indeed under the frozen water, so they had little time to save them before they could die.

"I managed to rescue the Zora princess from under the ice, but…she left to head for the Water Temple…"

" _Well, at least Ruto is safe…_ "

"This ice is created by an evil curse… The monster in the Water Temple is the source of the curse. Unless you shut off the source, this ice will never melt… If you have courage enough to confront the danger and save the Zoras, I will teach you the melody that leads to the temple. Time passes, people move… Like a river's flow, it never ends… A childish mind will turn to noble ambition… Young love will become deep affection… The clear water's surface reflects growth… Now listen to the Serenade of Water to reflect upon yourself…"

Sheik then teaches Link the Serenade of Water, the fourth warp song.

"Everyone… I'll see you again…" Sheik disappears.

After that, the heroes decided to first free King Zora before heading off to the Water Temple. Therefore, they made their way back to Zora's Domain and Link thawed King Zora out of his hot ice prison.

"Oh –I've come back to life!" he beamed. "Was it you who saved me? Don't be nervous!"

"Yes, it was us." Link nodded.

"Wonderful! Thank you so much!" King Zora then looks at Link, "Hmm, it looks like you have a hard time breathing underwater. As an expression of my gratitude, I grant you this tunic. With this, you won't choke underwater." he hands Link the Zora Tunic. "Please, I count on you to save my daughter!"

"We'll do it, your majesty." Peach assured as Link went off to somewhere in the domain to change into the Zora Tunic, which just like the Goron Tunic, it was an exact replica of his normal tunic, except it was blue.

Once Link finished changing, he played the Serenade of Water on his ocarina to warp him and the Mario cast to Lake Hylia. There, they spotted an underwater entrance under the lone island, so Link equipped the Iron Boots to sink underwater and used the hookshot on a switch to open the temple's entrance before they all swam inside.

* * *

The Water Temple is a deep, damp temple used as a place of worship for the Zora tribe. There were many fountains shaped like dragon heads and reliefs of the tribe's crest decorating the walls and floors. Most of the chambers were flooded with water, with small sea creatures lurking in the depths.

"Okay, this shouldn't be so horrible, right?" Yoshi asked while looking around. "It's just a bunch of water, after all."

"Here's hoping." Link said, equipping the iron boots again as he sunk to the very bottom of the temple as the Mario cast swam down after him. "By the way, I find it really weird that I can breathe underwater just by wearing this tunic." he remarked.

"And we can understand each other while underwater." Navi added. "How is that possible?"

"I have no idea, but this isn't too weird for us." Mario replied. "This also happens to us all the time back in our world."

"Your world must be something, then." Navi commented. "Nothing we find weird is the same to you all."

"And if that isn't weird enough, did you know that we can also shoot fire underwater?" Toad said, which made Link and Navi nearly tumble down after hearing that.

"Yeah, this is too weird…" Link groaned as they wandered into a flooded hallway. At the very end of it, there was Princess Ruto! Just like with Link, she was also grown up.

"Hey, isn't that…?" Peach breathed as Ruto heard them and turned around.

"Oh…you… If I'm right…Link?!" Ruto was of course, more focused on Link. "You're Link, aren't you?"

"… _What about us?_ " the Mario cast thought.

"It's me, your fiancée, Ruto! Princess of the Zoras!" Ruto squealed.

"Wait, YOUR _WHAT_?!" Link yelled. " _She was actually serious?!_ " he thought, as the Mario cast also thought the same thing.

"I never forgot the vows we made to each other seven years ago! You're a terrible man to have kept me waiting for these seven long years… But now is not the time to talk about love… I'm sure you've already seen it! Zora's Domain – totally frozen! A young woman named Sheik saved me from under the ice… But my father and the other Zoras have not…yet…"

" _Well, we actually just saved him…_ " the heroes thought.

"I want to save them all! I want to save Zora's Domain! You! You have to help me! This is a request from me, the woman who is going to be your wife! Link, you have to help me destroy the evil monster in the temple, OK?!"

"O-Okay…" Link replied a bit flabbergasted.

"Good! Inside the Water Temple, there are three places where you can change the water level. I'll lead the way. Follow me, quickly!" she then swam upwards.

"I can't believe we were chopped liver back there…" Toad groaned as they began to swim up to where Ruto went.

"Well, she did say back seven years ago that we were just a little cooler compared to Link…" Mario pointed out. "That doesn't mean I wasn't offended by her comment, of course."

"We all thought the same thing, bro." Luigi told him.

Everyone came out of the water and looked around for Ruto, but for some strange reason, the Zora Princess seemed to have mysteriously disappeared.

Link then spotted a Triforce symbol on the wall, so he played Zelda's Lullaby on his ocarina, causing the water from where they came from to drain.

But that was just the beginning of this freaking dungeon, because this is the moment where things start to become more tedious for our heroes.

As they proceeded to go about the Water Temple, because of the water level change mechanic, it started to get a bit confusing for the heroes to navigate around, since all hallways looked exactly the same, even after obtaining the Dungeon Map. Not to mention the fact that it was easy for them to miss a Small Key, and if they miss one, then they'll have to take a long turn back to find it, and that of course wasn't very fun.

And don't forget: iron boots on, iron boots off, iron boots on, iron boots off, iron boots on, iron boots off… Argh!

I scream, you scream, we ALL scream in frustration in the Water Temple!

It came to the point where Link and the Mario cast ALMOST screamed in frustration of how tedious this temple was, with Yoshi regretting what he said at the very beginning of the dungeon.

"I swear, if we have to change the water level ONE MORE FREAKING TIME…" Toad growled.

"We are _so_ with you there." Link nodded, mirroring Toad's expression before using his hookshot to get across a gap filled with spikes after Mario and Luigi got rid of the Like Like blocking the door that Link was about to enter.

Because of the frustration that took over him throughout the temple, Link did not wait for the others and instead went into the next room nigh immediately, which was… NOT a good idea, since he was locked in, and the Mario cast was left behind.

"Link?!" they exclaimed as they glanced at the barred door.

At the other side, Link swore under his breath that he was locked in. This was just not his day, wasn't it? However, when he took a good look at his surroundings, something about this room seemed… off. There were no walls at all so everything appeared to stretch as far as the eye could see, the floor was shallow water, there was a lone dry tree at the very middle, and the doors were just standing on structures that appear to be supported by nothing.

" _This room looks way different than the others… I wonder why?_ " Link thought as he made his way towards the door on the opposite side, unaware of his reflection in the water mysteriously vanishing.

"Hey, Link… I'm sensing something…dark in here…" Navi trailed.

"What do you mean, Navi?" Link asked as he finally reached the other door, except that it was also locked with bars.

Navi turned around, and saw a strange figure standing under the tree. Then, to her surprise, the figure started moving, revealing to be a dark copy of Link himself!

"AAAH!" she screamed, catching Link's attention. "Link! Behind you!"

Link turned around, and was shocked to see his dark doppelganger rushing to him with his sword and shield aloft and quickly blocked his attack with his shield.

"What the heck?!" he flinched. "A dark copy of me?!"

Indeed, this copy looked exactly like Link, only that his entire body was shadowy, his voice was deeper, and his eyes were glowing red. That, ladies and gentleman, was Dark Link.

"Don't let that fake get you!" Navi hollered.

Link immediately swings his sword at Dark Link, only for him to clash his sword with the other at the same time. Link still kept swinging, but his dark copy kept doing the same thing.

"He's copying my moves!" Link exclaimed. "Hey! Don't copy me!" he does a sword thrust while saying that, but to his surprise, Dark Link leapt onto the blade before swinging his sword down at him, but he managed to block it with his shield.

Dark Link was thrown back a bit by this blocking, so that gave Link the chance to deliver his first strike at him, causing him to vanish into the water. Link wondered where he went, and suddenly, Dark Link came from behind him and tried to slash at him, but he once again blocked with his shield, but since that was a surprise attack, Link was taken aback a bit.

Dark Link then does a jump slash at Link, but he back flipped out of the way before he kept a hard glare at his doppelganger, who stopped for a bit to recover.

"Quick! Conquer yourself!" Navi demanded.

"What?" Link asked.

"Do what you do if you wanted to, er… outsmart yourself…?" at this moment, Dark Link was getting up. "S-Sorry, Link… This is new! I've never seen something like this before!"

After a long moment of silence, with Dark Link mirroring Link's gestures, they started sword clashing again. This went for a while before Dark Link manages to kick Link to the ground. But when Link stood up, Dark Link sunk into the water again.

"Oh, where did he go now?!" he looked around. Unknown to him, Dark Link was silently sneaking underwater right below Link, ready to leap up to him.

Luckily, Link looked down just in time to avoid a strike from Dark Link once he jumped out of the water. Then, Dark Link did a series of blade spam attacks, which were thankfully blocked by Link keeping his shield raised in front of him. But when Link tried to slash at Dark Link once he stopped spamming his sword attacks, he blocked with his sword once again as the two now found themselves engaging in a close-range sword struggle.

But then, Link had an idea as a smirk appeared on his face; he suddenly rolls behind his doppelganger and whacks him on the head with the megaton hammer. This knocked Dark Link to the ground, and when he tried to get up, it was too late for him: Link stabs his back with his sword.

With that, Dark Link screamed in agony before vanishing for good. The room then changes into a hallway to match the Water Temple's rooms as both doors were unlocked and then the Mario cast ran in.

"Link!" they exclaimed as they ran up to him.

"What in the world happened in here?" Peach asked. "We were so worried!"

"Don't worry too much about it, Peach." Link smiled. "What matters is that I'm perfectly fine."

They nodded in understanding as they all went into the next room together, which held a treasure chest. Link opened it, pulling out the Longshot.

"Another hookshot?" he wondered. "But this one seems to reach further than the previous one. I think I'll use this." he said and then they went their merry way through the rest of the Water Temple.

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **The first time I've been to the Water Temple, as you all might expect, I was confused as hell when navigating through it and I finally learned why people said that this temple is so frustrating. The fact that you have to pause the game just to switch between boots does not help the slightest. Thankfully, the 3DS remake fixed a lot of the issues the Water Temple had, so it's no longer my least favorite temple in the series since I can just play through the 3DS version without getting frustrated. Hey, but at least the fight against Dark Link sort of makes up for it, right?**

 **The heroes are about to battle Morpha and venture through the Bottom of the Well in the next chapter... Until then! Please review!**


	13. Hunt for the Eye of Truth

**My collage classes are about to start tomorrow... But here's the next chapter!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 13: Hunt for the Eye of Truth**

After more tedious Water Temple shenanigans later, long story short, they eventually made it to the Boss Door.

"Finally, the Boss Door! I was getting tired of all these shenanigans we had to go through…" Toad muttered.

"No kidding." Link agreed. "You all ready?"

The others nodded yes, so Link opens up the door with the Boss Key and they all went inside. In the Boss Room, they immediately noticed that the water looked murkier than the rest of the water they encountered in the temple.

"Something about this water is different…" Peach mused as everyone stared at it, unaware of a certain small amoeba-like sphere lurking around in the murky waters.

Sensing that there were intruders around, the sphere made its merry way towards them from behind and silently began to move in circles in the water, creating a large tentacle of water… that managed to grab hold of Link.

"AAAARGH!" he yelled as he was lifted into the air.

"LINK!" the Mario cast cried out.

That amoeba thing might be small, but it is able to control the water. That was the Giant Aquatic Amoeba, Morpha.

"L-Let me go!" Link tried to break free from the tentacle, but no use since it wasn't ordinary water.

"Hang on, Link!" Mario quickly absorbs an Ice Flower and manages to freeze the tentacle of water, allowing Link to slip out of it and land on a platform.

"Thanks." Link thanked.

"Look out! Another tentacle is coming!" Navi warned as Morpha had created another tentacle of water, in which the heroes avoided this one, but another one showed up at the same time even without Morpha's influence and this one managed to grab hold of Ice Mario instead.

"Mario!" Peach cried out.

"Argh…! Stop it!" Ice Mario growled, freezing the tentacle to slip out of it.

"Link! Use your hookshot on that amoeba-thing!" Navi suggested as Morpha was still controlling the other tentacle to grab someone else.

"Got it!" Link nodded and brought out his longshot. "Hey, you! Eat hot longshot!" he uses the longshot to grab Morpha and impaled it with his sword.

Morpha floats into the air and explodes while letting out a cry of agony. After that, all of the murky water was drained, and a blue light showed up in the middle. At the same time, the Ice Flower's effect on Mario wore off.

Ready to know who the next Sage was, the heroes stepped into the blue light to reach the Chamber of the Sages. A light showed up at the blue platform and Ruto emerged out of it, much to the heroes' surprise.

"Link… I would have expected no less from the man I chose to be my husband." Ruto smiled.

" _HUSBAND?!_ " Link thought as the Mario cast looked a bit flabbergasted by this.

"Zora's Domain and its people will eventually return to their original state. As a reward…I grant my eternal love to you." Link was taken even more aback by this. "Well, that's what I want to say, but I don't think I can offer that now. I have to guard the Water Temple as the Sage of Water… And you… You're searching for the princess, Zelda? Hah! You can't hide anything from me!"

"Ruto… Zelda is alive, isn't she?" Peach asked, a bit of concern in her voice.

"Princess Zelda… She's alive. I can sense it… So don't be discouraged." everyone sighed in relief. "I can tell that nothing will stop you all in your quest for justice and peace… You must take these…"

Ruto rose her hands into the air as a blue Medallion and a blue Grand Star descended towards the heroes. Link took the Medallion while the Mario cast took the Grand Star.

"All I can do is grant my power to you in the Water Medallion and the Grand Star of Water." Ruto said. "Use them respectfully!"

Everything went white for our heroes as Ruto says her parting words:

" _If you see Sheik, please give her my thanks, OK?"_

* * *

Due to the curse on the Water Temple being broken, all of the water that was drained from Lake Hylia came back, thus the place now felt like a real lake again. Sheik was on the island, watching the water returning.

"As the water rises, the evil is vanishing from the lake… Everyone, you did it!" Sheik smiled. She then turned around when she heard a warping noise to see Link and the others coming back.

"Sheik!" Link exclaimed as he and the Mario cast ran up to her.

"Look at that, everyone…" Sheik stepped aside to show them the water returning to Lake Hylia. "Together, you all destroyed the evil monster! Once again, the lake is filled with pure water. All is as it was here. It's all thanks to you."

"It was nothing…" Luigi replied in embarrassment. "By the way, Ruto told us that she wanted to thank you."

"Really? I see… We have to return peace to Hyrule for her sake too. Don't we?"

"True." Mario nodded firmly along with the others as they looked up into the distance.

Taking that distraction as an advantage, Sheik began to step away from them, and by the time the heroes turned around and ran around to look for her, she somehow was now standing on top of the tree. Sheik then dives into the water, making a 'sploosh!' noise that did not go unheard by our heroes. But when they looked down to where Sheik dove, she was already gone.

"You know, I can't help but wonder who this Sheik is." Toad pondered.

"Oh, I thought I was the only one." Yoshi said.

"Somehow, I feel that I know her from somewhere… but I can't quite put my finger on it." Link mused.

"Is that so?" Peach asked. "But how?"

"I have no idea either."

"We can find out later." Navi interfered. "For now on, let's move on to our next destination!"

"Right!" Luigi nodded. "So, where to next, Toad?"

"Um… I don't think you're gonna like this, Luigi." Toad trailed, checking on his notebook. "Because the house of the dead is our next destination."

"Oh… crap…" Luigi paled up as usual.

"Don't worry, little bro." Mario patted Luigi's shoulder. "Just stick with us and nothing bad is going to happen to you."

"O-Okay…"

"Hold up." Link said as he noticed a stone tablet on the ground. "When water fills the lake, shoot for the morning light." he read. " _Hmm… I wonder…?_ " he thought before taking out his bow and firing an arrow directly at the sun.

"Link, why are you wasting an arrow like that?" Toad raised an eyebrow.

Just then, something landed on the far island up ahead. Link swam up to it and picked up the item, which was revealed to be Fire Arrows.

"Sweet!" he exclaimed before putting those away and swam back to the others.

"What did you just get?" Peach asked.

"Fire Arrows."

"Just by shooting an arrow at the sun? That's new." Yoshi remarked.

After Link changes back to his traditional green tunic, he and the others swam towards the area with the Laboratory, ready to leave Lake Hylia. Link played Epona's Song and she along with Pearl came to them. They mounted on them and galloped their way to Kakariko Village.

However, they saw smoke coming out at the direction of Kakariko Village. Fearing for the worst, they dashed off to their destination as quickly as possible.

The moment they entered the village, everyone was shocked at their surroundings, since the whole place was burning up. As they squinted their eyes to try to see better through the smoke, they saw none other than Sheik up ahead, looking down Kakariko's well, so they quickly ran up to her.

"Sheik…? What's the matter?" Link asked… before the top of the well suddenly blew up into the air, startling everyone except Sheik, as if she already knew this was coming.

"Get back, everyone!" Sheik shouted.

All of a sudden, an invisible figure emerged out of the well, and before Sheik could do anything, the figure grabbed hold of her and started shaking her around like a ragdoll as she screamed helplessly.

"SHEIK!" the heroes cried out before the figure chucked Sheik to the ground below the stairs.

As the heroes went down to check on Sheik, the figure circles around the village before making a U-turn and was now charging towards them. Link stands in front of them, sword and shield in hands, and tries to fight off against the figure… only for the screen to turn black as we hear Link's cries of agony.

* * *

"…ink… …Link… Link!" he heard Peach's voice calling out to him as he slowly opened his eyes to see her and the Mario cast looking down at him. "Oh, thank goodness you're okay!"

"Looks like you're coming around…" Sheik said.

"Ugh… What just happened?" Link asked while standing up along with Sheik and the Mario cast.

"Everyone… A terrible thing has happened! The evil shadow spirit has been released! Impa, the leader of Kakariko Village, had sealed the evil shadow spirit in the bottom of the well… But the force of the evil spirit got so strong, the seal of the well broke, and it escaped into the world!"

"Oh no…" the heroes whispered in unison.

"I believe Impa has gone to the Shadow Temple to seal it again, but…she will be in danger without any help! Everyone! Impa is one of the six Sages. Destroy the evil shadow spirit and save Impa!"

" _Thanks for spoiling the next Sage…_ " Toad thought with a hint of sarcasm.

"There is an entrance to the Shadow Temple beneath the graveyard behind this village. The only thing I can do for you is teach you the melody that will lead you to the Shadow Temple… This is the melody that will draw you into the infinite darkness that absorbs even time… Listen to this, the Nocturne of Shadow!"

Sheik then teaches Link the fifth warp song, the Nocturne of Shadow.

"But before you head into the Shadow Temple, I suggest that you retrieve a certain item in the well. That item will help you navigate through the temple much easier. However, you can't get that item in this time period…" Sheik said.

"…Wait, are you telling us that we'll have to go back seven years ago?" Luigi guessed.

"Correct. Let me take care of the village! I'm counting on you, everyone!"

The heroes nodded before Link played the Prelude of Light to warp them back to the Temple of Time. There, they made their way to the Pedestal of Time, surprised to see the Grand Star of Time still hovering above it. After exchanging a determined look with the Mario cast, Link takes out the Master Sword and plunges it into the pedestal.

The moment he did that, a blue light engulfed everyone while the Grand Star of Time unleashes its power on the Mario cast, likely to prevent them from de-aging like what Rauru and Sheik told them.

* * *

"Did it work…?" Yoshi blinked once the light faded. "Are we back seven years?"

"Well, we haven't changed, so…" Toad pointed out.

"Hey, look! Link is a child again!" Peach exclaimed, directing to Link.

Hearing her, Link looked down at himself, and indeed, he was back as a 10-year-old child again.

"…You know, it feels kind of weird being back as a child…" he admitted.

"We can definitely see why." Mario nodded. "You've been an adult for a very long time."

"All right, so I guess we're going back to Kakariko Village now." Luigi said before everyone began to exit the temple.

It felt very weird for our heroes after they passed by the Market, since it was back to its original state as if nothing bad has ever happened in the first place before Ganondorf's takeover. Considering the fact that they're time travelers now… it makes total sense.

Anyway, once they reached Kakariko Village, which once again looked like as if nothing bad had happened to it, they made their way to the well, only that it was full of water.

"We can't even get in it in this time period either!" Toad stated.

"Hey, Link, you still have your iron boots and Zora tunic with you, right?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah, but about that…" Link trailed as he pulled both items out. "They're a little too big for me…"

"Oh… What a bummer…" Luigi frowned as Link put both items away.

"I guess they only came adult-sized." Peach remarked.

"So how are we going to get rid of this water?" Yoshi pondered.

Link then looked up at the windmill and got an idea:

"I think I know how. Wait here."

The Mario cast looked at each other in confusion, wondering what Link was about to do, before nodding and the young hero made his way to the Windmill Hut. There, Link played the Song of Storms on his ocarina, and eventually, it began to rain inside as the windmill started spinning faster and faster.

Outside, the Mario cast watched the windmill go berserk much to their surprise, and considering that it started to rain, they must've guessed that Link had played the Song of Storms. Just then, the water in the well began to drain.

"Hey! The water is draining!" Yoshi beamed as they watched the water go down. "I don't know how that works, but I'll take it!"

Then, after the downpour stopped, Link walked out of the Windmill Hut and met up with the Mario cast before they all climbed down the well, ready to search for the item that Sheik told them to get.

* * *

They all walked forward as a Big Skulltula came down to scare them, but Link stabbed its back once it turned around, proving that it would take more than giant spiders to scare them, especially in a somewhat creepy place like the Bottom of the Well.

However, right behind the Big Skulltula… was nothing more than a dead end.

"Seriously?" Link questioned.

"Wait… Somehow I can hear the spirits whispering in this room…" Navi mused. "'Look for the eye of truth…' That's what they are saying!"

"The eye of truth…? Could this be the item Sheik was telling us to get?" Peach pondered.

"I don't know why, but something tells me that this isn't an ordinary wall…" Mario breathed as he slowly walks towards the wall and reaches his hand to touch it… and it went straight through it, surprising everyone. "Whoa!"

"Mario! Your hand just went through the wall!" Toad remarked.

"So that really wasn't a wall?" Link asked.

"Oh boy… So this place must be full of illusions." Mario stated. "We better watch our step."

After a nod, they all went through the fake wall and walked around, looking for the eye of truth item that Navi mentioned… only for Luigi to suddenly fall through the floor.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!" he screamed.

"Luigi?!" Mario turned around alarmed.

"Did he just fall through the floor?" Yoshi wondered.

"Oh, don't tell me there are fake floors as well…" Link trailed.

"I just hope Luigi is alright…" Peach frowned.

* * *

 _ **With Luigi…**_

"Ow… my back…" Luigi groaned as he got up. "Where am I…?" he was currently at the mini-dungeon's third basement. "Aw, I c-can't believe I'm all b-by myself…" he shivered in fear, but soon slaps himself in the face in order to psych himself up, "Oh, snap out of it, Luigi! Surely you can find a way back up somewhere!"

Taking a deep breath, he began to scan around the area around him. Unfortunately… before he could even take a step, he heard some familiar moans from behind him, which made him freeze and tense up in fear nigh immediately as he knew exactly whom those moans belong to.

Shaking like crazy, Luigi slowly turns around… to see a few ReDeads approaching him.

"No… NO! NOT _NOW_!" Luigi yelled in panic.

He tried to move, but since the ReDeads already released their paralyzing shrieks, that wasn't possible for our poor green mustachioed man as the ReDeads were getting closer and closer to him. Not wanting to see what the ReDeads are going to do to him, Luigi closes his eyes and looks away while shielding his face with his arms, ready for the worst.

"DIN'S FIRE!" all of a sudden, Link's voice yelled as a shockwave of fire came out of nowhere and burned down all the ReDeads as Luigi felt a hand on his shoulder…

"AAH!" …which made him yelp in surprise.

"Luigi, it's just me!" Link exclaimed.

"Link?" Luigi looked at him. "Sorry, you just startled me…" he rubbed the back of his head with a frown.

"It's alright. I got your back." Link smiled as the rest of the Mario cast came over.

"So ReDeads are weak to fire… That's good to know!" Mario grinned.

"Big bro!" Luigi ran up to Mario and hugged him, with him returning the hug.

"We're glad we finally found you, bro." Mario replied softly before they broke from the hug. "Are you okay?"

"Never better…" Luigi lied, wanting to hide about what he just suffered earlier after he got separated from the party. "But let's just find the item and get the hell out of here. This place is giving me the creeps…"

"I agree." Navi agreed.

* * *

 _ **Later…**_

After wandering around with a rather shaky Luigi, considering about the incident he just had, the heroes came upon a room, where the walls, floor and ceiling were made out of nothing but skulls, not to mention these freaky-looking disembodied hands sticking out of the floor.

"Okay, now this is beyond creepy…" Link trailed. Luigi definitely agrees with him on that part.

Cautiously, Link approaches one of the hands… only to be suddenly grabbed by it, and eventually, this action unleashed a horrifying monster. The Dead Hand.

After gasping in shock, Mario, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad were about to advance in order to help Link out of that hand…

 ***THUD!***

…but then they heard this 'thud' noise from behind them. They looked back to see that Luigi went down for the count.

"Oh, brother…" Mario sighed.

"I'll take care of Luigi." Peach volunteered. "You all go help Link!"

"Got it, Princess!" Toad nodded before rushing up to Link and cut off the hand grabbing him by swinging an axe. "Good thing I still kept my adventuring tools!"

"Thanks… But let's get rid of that scary thing already!" Link exclaimed while pointing to Dead Hand approaching him.

"And watch out for the hands!" Navi added.

Dead Hand then lowers its head in order to take a bite out of Link, but he sliced its mouth with his sword, along with Toad throwing turnips into it. Dead Hand roared in agony and tried to flee, but Mario and Yoshi blocked its path.

"Going somewhere?" Mario smirked before doing an uppercut on Dead Hand's jaw, allowing Yoshi to toss an Egg Bomb into its mouth. Once the Egg Bomb exploded, Dead Hand's whole body exploded as well, and all the hands in the room sunk into the floor.

"That takes care of that." Yoshi said.

"How's my brother holding up?" Mario asked, glancing over at Peach and Luigi.

"He's still knocked out." Peach answered.

"Oh, he'll soon come around." Toad assured as a treasure chest appeared and Link opened it up, pulling out the Lens of Truth.

"What's this…?" he awed at the object.

"It's the Lens of Truth!" Navi piped up. "I thought it was just a myth! From what I heard, this lens allows you to see through illusions."

"Ooh, that's cool!"

"Now can we get out of here? Because Luigi probably won't wake up until we leave this place." Mario said as everyone else nodded before Link played the Prelude of Light to warp everyone back to the Temple of Time.

As soon as they arrived there, Peach, who was holding Luigi on her arms, noticed that his eyes were opening up.

"Hey, boys! I think he's starting to wake up!" she beamed as she set Luigi on the floor as everyone looked over at him.

"Ooogh… What happened…?" Luigi groaned.

"You fainted over a monster." Mario replied. "We even had to get out of there before you woke up."

"We don't blame you, though. That thing was very creepy to us as well." Link added.

"Oh. Glad I'm not the only one, then." Luigi smiled as he got up. "So, did you get the item?"

"We did." Link showed him the item. "It's called the Lens of Truth, and it allows us to see through illusions. Basically now we can see through anything that's fake or invisible."

"Really? Cool."

Link puts away the lens. "Well, are you guys ready to go back to the future?" the Mario cast nodded in response.

With that, they walked up to the Pedestal of Time and Link pulled out the Master Sword, taking everyone back seven years later.

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Oh, boy... If Luigi suffered a lot in the Bottom of the Well, then he's _really_ going to hate the Shadow Temple... Which is what the next chapter is going to be, by the way! Please review!**


	14. The Shadow Temple

**The first days of collage went well so far. Anyway, here we have the next chapter!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 14: The Shadow Temple**

Immediately after everyone was taken back seven years later, Link played the Nocturne of Shadow to warp them to the Shadow Temple's entrance… where Luigi noticed it was just above the Graveyard.

"Oh god…" he paled up as they walked inside the entrance.

The entrance was surrounded by torches, so Link unleashed Din's Fire to lit all of them up, and the door leading to the temple opened up before they proceeded to walk in.

The Shadow Temple was a dark, eerie place filled with illusions, much like the Bottom of the Well, skeletons, and torture devices. Just like in Dead Hand's room, there were some walls in the dungeon made out of dry skulls as well as dry skin, and the floors accompanying them were stained in blood. ReDeads and Gibdos stalked the many chambers and halls.

Turns out that the Shadow Temple was once a place where Hyrule's greatest criminals during the Civil War were tortured, interrogated, and killed for their crimes. Their death punishments mostly consisted of being hanged, burned, impaled, or even beheaded.

As we all could expect, Luigi was extremely creeped out by this place, while the rest of the gang didn't seem to care that much as they all went their merry way, using the Lens of Truth when necessary, since it consumes magic.

They passed by a creepy-looking maze of skull walls, which weren't nearly as bad as they also got the map of the temple in one of the rooms… but the second maze had pots that floated up out of thin air and launched straight to them, but they avoided them and out came a few Rupees. But these pots DID nearly send Luigi over the edge.

"A-Are w-we done y-yet?" Luigi whined.

"No, we're just getting started." Link said as they kept wandering around while Luigi had a 'get me out of here!' look on his face, which made Mario feel sorry for him, so he hoped they could clear this dungeon as quickly as possible.

After getting the Hover Boots, in which they had to fight another Dead Hand in order to get them, much to Luigi's dismay, the heroes came upon a large gap leading to a door. Link equipped the Hover Boots to hover over the gap while the Mario cast just jumped across it and they all went through the door.

They found the Compass in another room where they had to defeat a Beamos and two Gibdos, and next they came upon a room with five Silver Rupees… and two grim reaper-like statues with spinning scythe blades in the very middle.

The heroes collected all of the Silver Rupees to get a Small Key in a chest before proceeding down the hallways, knocking out some Big Skulltulas in the way.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that these hallways have guillotines? Because they do.

And it made Luigi almost faint from the thought of his own head being chopped off by these automatic guillotines, not helping the fact that they go up and down pretty quickly, making it hard to avoid them without precise timing.

They continued on the hallway, taking care of a Wallmaster in the process and went forward, killing a Stalfos and a Beamos that had a Silver Rupee underneath it before they collected the rest of the Silver Rupees while avoiding the Spike Traps.

Up ahead on the next room, there were platforms with spikes underneath them that keep slamming into the ground, which was perfect for crushing people to death… and that's exactly what Luigi had in mind, causing him to go down for the count again.

Seeing what happened to his brother, Mario sighed in pity before picking up Luigi and carrying him on his back as they all left to grab some keys and going on their merry way, hopping on invisible platforms with Link being their guide since he's the one who holds the Lens of Truth.

It was only after they reached a room with fans that Luigi finally woke up, but he still looked traumatized and was shaking like crazy after witnessing many creepy things this temple has to offer, with the rest of the heroes noticing that.

"I think this place is too much for him…" Link frowned.

"Well, we can't blame him." Mario replied, mirroring Link's expression. "My brother always had this trauma ever since we were born."

"Let's just hope we can break the curse on this temple as soon as possible." Peach hoped.

Link then equips the iron boots as the Mario cast grabbed onto his back in order to advance towards the fans until they went into a room with Gibdos, only to all be destroyed when Link used Din's Fire. After that, he threw a bomb onto a pile of bones to uncover an invisible chest holding a Small Key.

Upon unlocking the door with the key, they kept on going until they boarded a large ship, and, seeing the Triforce symbol on the deck, Link played Zelda's Lullaby. Eventually, the ship started to move along the water… and they were ambushed by two Stalfos.

Thankfully, they managed to take out the Stalfos, and just in time too, because…

"Everyone! This ship is sinking! Abandon ship! Get onto a safe platform!" Navi called out as the ship began to sink into the depths.

They quickly listened to her and managed to get off before they were sunk along with the ship. The heroes noticed a locked door on the other side, so they went into the available door, taking them to a maze of invisible walls. Link guided the others around the maze while taking out some Floormasters in the process, as they were about to go through a set of three different rooms in the maze that contained different torture devices.

The first room, which looked like an interrogation room, given the amount of blood on the floor, had an invisible Floormaster, which Link immediately took care of and got a key. The next room, which had three rotating flaming skulls that could work as cremating devices, had only a lot of Rupees for their trouble. And the last room consisted of two walls of spikes slowly closing in between them… except they were made out of wood.

Mario and Luigi smirked, both of them absorbing a Fire Flower and unleashing a blast of fire from their hands to burn the wooden walls… and also burning alive two ReDeads in the process before the brothers grabbed the Boss Key as well.

With the Boss Key in hands, they unlocked the Boss Door and went inside, leading them to a deep pit in the middle.

"You guys ready?" Link asked as everyone nodded… well, Luigi was a bit hesitant about this, but he decided to join in nonetheless.

With that, they all jumped down the hole below, landing right on top of… a giant drum?

"What in the…?" Toad whispered.

Just then, two giant hands came out of nowhere and started beating the drum, with every beat sending our heroes a few feet into the air as they looked up… to see a giant monster with his large eye exposed in front of them before he suddenly disappeared. That was the Phantom Shadow Beast, Bongo Bongo.

"Wha… Did he just vanish?!" Luigi flinched.

"No,he's just invisible!" Link looked through the Lens of Truth, showing to him that Bongo Bongo's main body was indeed just invisible.

Then, the most bizarre thing in this battle happened: as Bongo Bongo was beating the drum, the heroes could've sworn they heard him singing… A Boss that could sing?

"Is he… singing?" Yoshi wondered.

"Forget about the singing! His hands are coming for us!" Toad yelled, pointing at the hands charging towards them. While everyone managed to avoid one of the hands, the other one actually managed to grab hold of Luigi.

"WAAAAAH!" he screamed.

"LUIGI!" the rest of the heroes cried out.

"H-HELP! I'M BEING CRUSHED TO DEATH!" Luigi yelled as the hand tightens its grip on him, and his face was about to turn purple.

"What should we do?!" Peach panicked.

"Link! Shoot the hands with your bow!" Navi suggested.

"That's good advice, Navi!" Link exclaimed and quickly fires an arrow at the hand choking Luigi, causing the hand to let go of him. As Link fired another arrow at the other hand, Mario quickly rushed to Luigi, who was panting heavily due to losing some breath when he was being choked.

"You okay, Luigi?" Mario asked in concern.

" ***pant* *pant*** I'm… ***pant*** fine…" Luigi panted.

"Uh… Mario! Luigi! Get out of the way!" Link yelled as he saw Bongo Bongo's invisible body charging towards the Mario Bros.

Acting quickly, Mario drags Luigi with him just in time to avoid Bongo Bongo's charging by a few inches. With that, Link slashes Bongo Bongo's eye, causing him to get stunned and fall to the ground before the Hero of Time stabbed his eye.

Bongo Bongo cried in agony before dissolving into dark matter as he made contact with the drum. A blue light appeared in the very middle.

"Whew… I thought for sure I was going to die…" Luigi sighed in relief after recovering all of the breath he had lost.

"Well, you have us with you, right?" Link smiled along with the rest.

"Yeah… I'm just glad it's finally over." Luigi smiled back.

They then all went into the blue light, taking them to the Chamber of the Sages. The purple platform was surrounded in a blue light and out of it came Impa, although the heroes already knew that she was a Sage thanks to Sheik spoiling it for them.

"The boy with the noble Zelda's ocarina and his comrades… As I expected, you have come." Impa spoke. "I am Impa, one of the Sheikah. I am Princess Zelda's caretaker, and I am also the Sage who guards the Shadow Temple."

" _We already knew all of that, actually…_ " the heroes thought.

"We Sheikah have served the royalty of Hyrule from generation to generation as attendants. However… On that day seven years ago, Ganondorf suddenly attacked…and Hyrule Castle surrendered after a short time. Ganondorf's target was one of the keys to the Sacred Realm…the hidden treasure of the Royal Family…the Ocarina of Time! My duty bound me to take Zelda out of Ganondorf's reach." she then looks at Link, "When last I saw you, as we made our escape from the castle, you were just a lad… Now I see that you and the others have become fine heroes… There's nothing to worry about… The princess is safe now.

"Soon you'll meet Princess Zelda face-to-face, and she will explain everything… That is when we, the Six Sages, will seal up the Evil King and bring the Tyrant King back to his world to return peace to Hyrule. I have to stay here… You go to Princess Zelda's side and protect her on my behalf. Now, take these…"

Impa rose her hands into the air as a purple Medallion and a purple Grand Star descended towards the heroes. Link took the former while the Mario cast took the latter.

"I put my power, which should be helpful to you, into the Shadow Medallion and the Grand Star of Shadow!" Impa declared.

Everything went white for our heroes as they listen to Impa's parting words:

" _Please look out for the princess!"_

* * *

The heroes were taken back to the Graveyard, but before they could start up a conversation, they first decided to leave to Kakariko Village in order to not traumatize Luigi further, as he already suffered enough in the Shadow Temple.

"Feel better, Luigi?" Peach asked.

"Much better, thanks." Luigi answered with a smile. "I'm lucky to have you guys with me."

"That's what friends are for!" Yoshi chirped.

"It's hard to believe that we've awakened five Sages!" Navi chimed. "Just one more and we can finally confront Ganondorf and his mysterious second-in command!"

"True." Link nodded. "What's our last destination, Toad?"

"Inside a goddess of the sand, according to my notebook." Toad replied.

"A goddess of the sand… Looks like we'll be heading to a desert." Mario stated.

"That must be the part of Hyrule we haven't visited yet!" Navi pointed out. "If I remember correctly, it's all the way to the west."

"All right, then we shall head to the west!" Link exclaimed before they mounted on Epona and Pearl and dashed off to the far west side of Hyrule Field to reach the entrance to the desert.

"The desert… That is where Ganondorf the Evil King was born. If we go there, we might find something…" Navi mused as they entered Gerudo Valley.

* * *

The Gerudo Valley was an area by a vast desert and home of the Gerudo tribe. Past the area with waterfalls was a small marketplace between the valley and the fortress, so Link and the others decided to stop there and gather some more gear and other supplies for their journey ahead, as well as ask the locals about the desert. What they didn't know yet was that these locals were disguised Gerudos who oppose their ruler, Ganondorf.

"Water for our flasks… salt… dried meat… and that bundle of arrows." Link ordered these items to a shopkeeper.

"That's 120 Rupees in total." the shopkeeper said. Link paid her 120 Rupees and she handed him the items. "Pleasure doing business with you. Take care!"

As the heroes stepped out of the shop, Peach couldn't help but notice:

"Say, didn't Zelda tell us that Ganondorf was a Gerudo? Then how come there are only women around here?" she wondered.

"We were thinking the same thing, Princess." Toad threw in.

"Excuse me…" a female voice came. "Are you all new around here?"

The heroes turned around to see the one who spoke to them; it was a Gerudo woman who just removed the hood of her cloak to reveal her face to them.

"Yes, we are." Link responded. "And who are you?"

"The name's Val, a Gerudo." Val replied.

"…You're a Gerudo?" Yoshi blinked.

"That's right. The Gerudo race consists only of women. Only one man is born every hundred years, and he is crowned our leader. Even though the laws say that lone male Gerudo must become our King, I and all the people in this market will never bow to that… ugh… evil man!"

" _She must be talking about Ganondorf…_ " the heroes thought with their eyebrows furrowed.

"When that man was born, our tribe was severely divided. One side swearing allegiance to him, and the other opposing him. A civil war happened in the Gerudo's Fortress and a lot of lives were lost… So in order to not get killed, we, the ones opposing that man, were forced to hide ourselves and rely on selling supplies, leading to the building of this market."

"Oh… That explains why you're wearing this cloak." Luigi pointed out.

"And what's happening at the fortress right now?" Mario asked.

"All of the Gerudo who are sided with that man are patrolling it, from the inside and outside." Val answered. "And worst, the carpenters who come here all the time to fix our bridge are being held captive in the fortress. If you're going to save them, make sure you don't get spotted by the Gerudo guards or you'll be thrown into prison. Well, the foreman was the only one who didn't get captured, but still, he can't work alone."

"We'll be careful." Link assured. "Which way is the fortress?"

"Just follow that path up ahead." Val pointed. "Good luck and be careful."

The heroes nodded to her and headed off to the Gerudo's Fortress.

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Originally, I planned to include that last bit in the next chapter, but since this chapter turned out quite short, I decided to put it in here. And let's just say that I had fun writing Luigi's feelings toward the Shadow Temple... ;)**

 **Next up comes the Gerudo Fortress and the Haunted Wasteland! Please review!**


	15. Accessing the Spirit Temple

**Sorry it took so long... Blame collage for that.**

 **Anyways, enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 15: Accessing the Spirit Temple**

The Gerudo Fortress was the main settlement of the Gerudo people that was now turned into a prison due to the majority of the Gerudos obeying Ganondorf, their supposed king. This place was filled with these Gerudo guards patrolling the area in search of intruders, and certainly enough, our heroes were no different.

"This isn't good… Just like Val warned us, there are Gerudo guards everywhere!" Navi trailed. "Be on guard, everyone."

They all nodded and Link went first, going up the stairs cautiously. Seeing two wooden crates nearby, Link decided to hide behind them. Unfortunately, he didn't notice a Gerudo guard at the left side as he went to hide.

"Halt! Stay where you are!" she yelled, catching the attention of all Gerudo guards nearby as they all went after Link, spears pointing at him.

" _Oh, shoot…_ " he thought as he rose his hands in surrender… before one of the guards smacked him upside the head that knocked him out.

Down below, the Mario cast and Navi watched in horror as they saw Link being taken away by the guards.

"Oh no! Link!" Peach cried.

"Good thing we didn't move out of our spot…" Toad remarked.

"Yeah, but now Link has been caught!" Luigi added.

"Where are they taking him, Navi?" Yoshi asked.

"Inside the fortress!" Navi answered.

"Then let's enter it by following the Gerudos. But let's be careful to not make a sound." Mario said before they all followed the Gerudo guards silently towards the entrance to the fortress.

Knowing that the guards will leave right after tossing Link into his cell, the Mario cast decided to jump up a level of the fortress right above the entrance and wait for the guards to come out. Once the guards got out to resume their patrol, the heroes leapt down and went into the entrance.

* * *

 _ **Meanwhile, with Link…**_

"Ugh… my achin'…" Link groaned, regaining consciousness and looking up, only to find himself locked in a prison cell. "What the…?"

"I see that you finally woke up." a Gerudo Thief came in. "At least you have some company around here." she motioned to a bunch of other cells with a man inside each one. Link could possibly tell that these were the captured carpenters.

"What do you want with me?!" Link retorted.

"Nothing much, but we heard that Lord Ganondorf is expecting you."

"You…!" Link angrily got up, getting ready to unsheathe his sword, but then he realized that it was not with him and soon noticed it along with the Hylian Shield and all his other weapons at the other side of the room. " _Oh no…_ " he thought alarmed.

"Do you think we're stupid? We took away your weapons before we threw you in! There's nothing you can do about us Gerudo, stupid kid!"

As the Gerudo Thief was speaking, right at the entrance we see the Mario cast sneaking inside quietly. The carpenters noticed them, and unfortunately for the Mario cast, one of them, Ichiro, just so happened to whisper to them:

"Hey, you! All of you over there! You must have a lot of guts to make it here!" the Mario cast's eyes went wide as they made a 'quiet!' gesture to him.

"Ichiro!" the other carpenters whispered angrily at him.

"Huh?! Who goes there?!" the Gerudo Thief turned around, only to see… nothing? "Weird…" she mused before turning her attention to Link and telling him, "Anyways, don't even try to stand in our way! Stay in here and keep quiet!"

She then turns around to leave, although she couldn't help but glance suspiciously at five odd stone statues standing next to the entrance before exiting the room.

Link also noticed the odd statues standing by the entrance and he wondered where did they come from and why do they look awfully familiar: the statues kinda resembled his friends…

Then, in the blink of an eye, the statues shifted into the Mario cast, all of them sporting a tanooki tail, although in Luigi's case it was a kitsune tail. Additionally, Mario, Toad, and Peach were also sporting tanooki ears while Luigi had kitsune ears.

"Glad that trick worked out." Raccoon Mario grinned.

"Phew, I thought we were going to get caught too…" Fox Luigi sighed.

"Guys? How did you turn into statues?" Link asked.

"That was another Power-Up we used." Raccoon Mario explained. "It's called a Super Leaf and it grants us the Raccoon form, hence why we got ears and tails. Not only this Power-Up allows us to fly, glide and attack with our tails, but it can change us into statues."

"Now that's cool."

"Don't worry, Link. We're going to get you out of here." Raccoon Peach assured. "Oh, and also the carpenters."

"But how? There's no key around here."

"We can search for one." Raccoon Toad said.

"But be careful, lads! There're sure to be more than one Gerudo guard somewhere around here…" Ichiro warned.

"Woo! Watch out!" Jiro yelled, and right on cue, the same Gerudo Thief from earlier attempted an ambush from behind the Mario cast, but they dodged her attack. If it wasn't for Jiro's warning…

"I KNEW there was something suspicious about those statues!" the Gerudo Thief hissed before she blew a whistle, and all the Gerudo Thieves who heard it came rushing inside the room with swords in their hands.

"Oh, crap…" Fox Luigi gulped.

"Looks like we have no choice but to fight them." Raccoon Mario took a fighting stance.

"And then again, where's the fun if this was too easy?" Raccoon Toad grinned as the Gerudo Thieves quickly surrounded them, ready to pounce on them.

"Mario, you do have some tricks up your sleeve, right?" Raccoon Yoshi asked.

"I sure do." Raccoon Mario smirked. "Get ready for a festival of Power-Ups!"

"Silence!" a Gerudo Thief yelled and then lunged directly at Mario, only to get a… cat scratch in the face? "YOWCH!"

"What the hell?!" another Gerudo Thief exclaimed as the camera moves to show Mario… in his Cat Suit.

"Meow!" Cat Mario meowed playfully.

The Gerudo Thief who received the scratch growled and then slashed him repeatedly, but Cat Mario jumped up to avoid the attack and did a Cat Dive at her, hitting her directly in the gut and she was knocked to a wall where she fell unconscious.

"Who are these guys?!" a Gerudo Thief questioned.

"Don't question! Just fight!" another ordered… before she and the previous one from above found themselves surrounded… by two Luigis. "Wait, WHAT?! Am I seeing double?!"

The two Luigis smirked to each other before uppercutting the two Gerudo Thieves simultaneously into the air with a Super Jump Punch, before Super Dragon Yoshi came in and shot a fireball from his mouth at them, sending them slamming into a few Gerudo Thieves who were going after Cat Mario.

"Bullseye!" Super Dragon Yoshi cheered.

"Tch, you don't look like someone who's capable of fighting!" a Gerudo Thief mocked Peach, who was the only one with no Power-Ups, but she did had a trick up her sleeve herself.

"Don't say that! You'll make me angry!" Peach teased, before a huge flame surrounded her body when she activated her Rage Vibe and sent waves of fire at a few of the Gerudo Thieves.

After that, Peach activated her Joy Vibe, and the cyclone that surrounded her knocked the rest of the Gerudo Thieves away. However, most of them were getting up, no matter what the Mario cast did, they just keep coming.

"You are hard to kill!" one of them yelled. "Why don't you stay down?!"

"Oh, thanks for the advice!" Toad suddenly came, wearing a red Penguin Suit, as he slid on his belly towards a few of them.

"ARGH!" they yelled as Penguin Toad rammed into them, knocking them around like bowling pins.

"And that's how you do a Strike!" Penguin Toad exclaimed.

"Stop goofing around and fight, weird mushroom thing!" a certain Gerudo Thief ordered as she charges at Penguin Toad with her swords.

"If you insist." Penguin Toad replied casually before shooting an ice ball to freeze her, then ramming into her with a belly slide, sending her straight into a wall.

Peach saw a few more Gerudo Thieves heading straight towards her, so she uses a Super Leaf to turn into Tanooki Peach, where she gained an actual tanooki costume, and knocked all of them to the ground by swinging her tail at them.

"HA-CHA!" Tanooki Peach yelled as she did a Peach Bomber at them, knocking them straight to a wall and into more Gerudo Thieves.

"Just a few more, gang!" Mario grinned as the rest of the Mario cast regrouped while the remaining Gerudo Thieves were standing there, a few with dumbfounded looks. "Let me take care of these ones!" he takes out a Fire Flower to turn into Fire Mario as the Gerudo Thieves watched him smirking at them as he made his palms burst into flames.

"They're too much for us! Should we retreat?!" a Gerudo Thief asked, looking a bit frightened.

"Never! Gerudo never back down from a fight!" another one replied.

"Oh, good. I kind of expected you to not retreat that easily." Fire Mario smirked and then proceeded to shoot fireballs repeatedly at them until he was surrounded. "Oh boy… what am I ever going to do?" he said with a casual shrug before surrounding his fist in flames and punching the ground to create a shockwave of flames to send the Gerudo Thieves away.

After that, Fire Mario proceeded to punch the daylights out of the Gerudo Thieves until there was only one left. Noticing the remaining Gerudo Thief, Fire Mario casually walked over to her, who was trembling in fear.

"Halt! D-Don't come any closer…!" she panicked.

"I'm not going to hurt you." Fire Mario spoke sternly before grabbing her by the collar. "But I'll only let you and the others go if you free Link and the carpenters and allow all of us access to the Haunted Wasteland. Otherwise…" he rose his free hand clenched into a fist, making it erupt into flames.

"Okay, okay! I'll free them! Just let me go!"

"And that other promise?"

"I-I'll explain later!"

"Good." Fire Mario let her go as she went over to each of the carpinters' cells and set them free before doing the same thing to Link. At the same time, all of the Power-Ups' effect on the Mario cast wore off.

"Link!" Navi beamed, flying up to Link. "Thank goodness you're alright!"

"Good to see you again, Navi." Link smiled before turning to the Mario cast as he reequips his weapons, "And all that stuff you just did to all of the Gerudo… Dang. I never expected you all to fight like that!"

"Me neither!" the Gerudo Thief threw in. "By the way, name's Aveil. I used to think that all men, except for the great Ganondorf, and all non-Gerudo women were useless…but now that I've seen how all of you guys fight, I don't think so anymore!" she was of course talking about the Mario cast.

"But why did all of you attack us like that?" Peach asked.

"The exalted Nabooru, our leader, put us in charge of this fortress." Aveil continued. "Nabooru is the right hand to the great Ganondorf, King of the Gerudo Thieves, and that large unknown turtle monster."

" _Turtle… monster…?!_ " the Mario cast thought, as they certainly knew exactly whom was she talking about.

"Her headquarters are in the Spirit Temple, which is at the end of the desert. Now, take these with you." she hands them Gerudo Tokens. "With these membership cards, you will have free access to all areas of the fortress!"

"Nice! Thanks!" Yoshi thanked as he and the others put on the tokens like they were necklaces.

"You're welcome. From now on, you're free to come and go as you please through the gate to the desert."

"That's great, but where can we access the Haunted Wasteland?" Luigi asked.

"Once you exit this fortress, head down the stairs and you'll find a gate to your right with a Gerudo guarding it. That gate will take you to the Haunted Wasteland, where beyond it lies the Spirit Temple."

"Alright. Thanks for the directions!" Link thanked before the heroes exited the fortress.

* * *

Upon exiting, they saw that all the Gerudo guards were no longer giving them the stink eye since they each had a Gerudo Token. After going down the stairs, they turned right where they saw a large gate with a Gerudo standing next to it. They went to her and she spoke:

"Hey, rookies! Are you going into the desert?" they all nodded. "I'll open this gate for you, but… You can't cross the desert unless you pass the two trials. The first trial is…the River of Sand! You can't walk across this river! After you cross it, follow the flags we placed there. The second trial is…the Phantom Guide!"

" _Oh, come on…_ " Luigi thought, as usual paling up at the mention of that.

"Those without eyes that can see the truth will only find themselves returning here. You are going anyway, aren't you? I won't stop you… Go ahead!" she then opens the gate.

Ready for the trials up ahead, they took off into the Haunted Wasteland, where the wind there was blowing strong and harsh, kicking sand everywhere, forcing the heroes to shield their faces to prevent any grain of sand from getting into their eyes. Reaching the river of quicksand in front of them, Link crossed it by using his Longshot at the wooden crates while the Mario cast jumped across each of them.

Upon following the flags, they reached a stone structure with a stone tablet at the top that reads:

" _One with the eye of truth shall be guided to the Spirit Temple by an inviting ghost."_

Of course, Luigi paled up by the mention of 'ghost', but Mario assured him that Link would be their guide and the fact that they can't actually see the ghost unless one of them uses the Lens of Truth. The moment Link used the Lens of Truth, he saw a ghost in front of him who spoke:

"I'll be your guide on your way, but coming back, I won't play! I'll show you the only way to go, so follow me and don't be slow!"

With that, Link followed the ghost, although the Mario cast couldn't see it, but they had Link as their guide. Eventually, they passed their last trial and reached the Desert Colossus.

Once there, Navi sensed a presence behind a cracked wall, so the heroes went there… while some annoying Leevers attempted to attack them, but they were quickly taken care of before Link blew up the wall with a bomb and they all went inside.

Turns out that this cave led to a Fairy Fountain, so after Link played Zelda's Lullaby, the Great Fairy came out and granted him the final magic spell: Nayru's Love, which allowed him to create a barrier around himself.

After that, they all made their way to the Spirit Temple, ready to break its curse since they knew it was the last temple.

* * *

The Spirit Temple is a shrine for the Gerudo people to worship the Goddess of the Sand, which was the giant structure seen at the temple's entrance, and also where they keep all the treasure they steal. The walls depicted Gerudo writing, as their language was different from the Hylian one, and the most common motifs for this temple consisted of snakes and suns. About the Goddess of the Sand, it was said that the people of Hyrule say that this Goddess is actually an evil deity due to differences in religion.

However, as soon as the heroes went inside, they looked around and discovered that there was no way to progress any further: there was a large stone block at their right blocking the passage, and there was a small hole at their left, which was too big for Link to go through… well, for the way he is right now.

"Um… what now?" Yoshi asked.

"Well, we obviously can't do anything about that large block." Mario said, pointing at the block before turning his attention to the hole. "But we can crawl in there… if only Link wasn't an adult."

"If that's the case, then we should go back to the Temple of Time!" Navi suggested.

With that in mind, the heroes exited the temple, and at this very exact moment, Sheik leaped down from the large stone arch in front of the stairs and landed right in front of them.

"Past, present, future…" she began to speak, while Rauru as Kaepora Gaebora was flying in the background. "The Master Sword and the Grand Star of Time are ships with which you can sail upstream and downstream through time's river… The port for those ships is in the Temple of Time… To restore the Desert Colossus and enter the Spirit Temple, you must travel back through time's flow… Listen to this Requiem of Spirit… This melody will lead a child and his otherworldly unchanged friends back to the desert."

Sheik takes out her harp and teaches Link the final warp song, the Requiem of Spirit… all while Rauru was watching and listening from above before flying off. Apparently, he can change into Kaepora Gaebora in the future as well…

After the song was learned, Sheik said nothing else before she disappears again.

Everyone just shrugged it off before Link played the Prelude of Light to warp all of them to the Temple of Time. There, they walked towards the Pedestal of Time where Link unsheathes the Master Sword and the Grand Star of Time floats above the Mario cast.

"Ready?" Link asked.

"Yes." the Mario cast nodded.

With that, Link plunges the sword into the pedestal, taking everyone back seven years ago once again.

Now that they were back to the present (past?), Link, who was back as a child again, plays the Requiem of Spirit to take everyone back to the Desert Colossus before they went back into the Spirit Temple.

* * *

Inside, they looked for the small hole, only to discover that a Gerudo woman was kneeled down in front of it. With curiosity, the heroes walked up to her.

"Hmm?" she turned around, standing up. "I haven't seen you all around… What do you want?"

"Well… we have nothing to do, really." Link replied with a shrug.

"Wait, you have nothing to do? What good timing! Can you do me a favor, you all?"

"Sure." Mario nodded. "What can we d-…"

"Wait a second." she interrupted Mario. "I want to ask you all first… You wouldn't happen to be one of Ganondorf's…followers…would you?" everyone immediately shook their heads. "Uh-huh! You've all got guts. I think I like you. First of all, let me introduce myself. I'm Nabooru of the Gerudo. I'm a lone-wolf thief."

" _Wait, she's Nabooru?!_ " the heroes thought. " _But… why is she being nice to us?_ " indeed; wasn't she supposed to be working with Ganondorf?

"But don't get me wrong!" Nabooru continued. "Though we're both thieves, I'm completely different from Ganondorf. With his followers, he stole from women and children, and he even killed people! People like you may not know this, but… You have heard about the Gerudo tribe, haven't you?"

"We did." Peach replied. "A Gerudo woman named Val told us about your tribe."

"Really? So you might already know that even though our laws say that lone male Gerudo must become King of the Gerudo, I'll never bow to such an evil man! By the way, what are your names?"

"I'm Link."

"Mario."

"Luigi."

"Peach."

"Yoshi!"

"Toad."

"And Navi!"

"What kind of names are that?" Nabooru questioned. "Well…anyway… I want to ask you a favor… Will you go through this tiny hole and get a treasure that's inside? The treasure is the Silver Gauntlets. If you equip them, you can easily push and pull very heavy things!"

" _Exactly the thing we need!_ " the heroes thought.

"We can get these for us right away!" Toad exclaimed.

"No, no, no! Don't even think about taking this treasure for yourselves!" Nabooru exclaimed. "The Silver Gauntlets won't fit any of you if you try to equip them! I want you to be good little people and give them to me! Ganondorf and his minions are using the Spirit Temple as a hideout. Only the Silver Gauntlets will allow me to sneak deep into the temple. Once there, I'm going to steal all the treasure inside and mess up their plans!"

" _Hmm… That might explain why she ended up in Ganondorf's clutches…_ " the heroes thought.

"How about it? Will you do it?" everyone looked at each other before nodding. "Thanks! You all and I, let's give Ganondorf and his followers a big surprise, shall we? If you can successfully get the Silver Gauntlets… I'll do something great for you!" she then steps out of the way, allowing the heroes to go into the crawl space.

The heroes walked around, taking out a Stalfos, dodging some jars coming to life flying straight at them, dealing with an Anubis, gathering some Silver Rupees, blowing up a wall with a Bombchu, and finally dealing with a tedious block puzzle before they eventually made it through the steps.

"You know, I couldn't help but wonder what that giant statue was for." Yoshi remarked.

"It could be important for later." Mario said as they walked into the next room… where they found a large armored brute sitting on a throne.

"What's that?" Toad wondered as he curiously walked closer to it.

"Wait! Don't come closer to it!" Navi warned.

Too late: once Toad was a few inches away from the armor, it suddenly sprung to life and attempted to swing its giant axe down at him, but he avoided it in time.

"What the heck?!" Luigi flinched.

"Iron Knuckle!" Navi exclaimed. "Its axe is extremely dangerous!"

"All right, let's do this!" Link declared, readying his Kokiri Sword.

The Iron Knuckle slowly walked towards the heroes until it raised its axe and swung it to its sides, but they quickly jumped back. As he jumped back, Link landed a blow with his sword at the Iron Knuckle by doing a jump slash, while Toad fired mushroom spores at it along with Mario shooting fireballs at it.

The Iron Knuckle swung its axe at them again, but they avoided it again before Luigi fired a lightning bolt at it, causing some of its armor to come off as it was stunned. This made the Iron Knuckle really mad and started swinging all over the place.

With that, Toad kept the Iron Knuckle distracted while the rest chipped off more of its armor. Once all of the armor was off, the Iron Knuckle angrily kicked Link down and punched the Mario cast away from it before swinging its axe down at Link, only for him to unleash Nayru's Love and the axe bounced off of the barrier.

Acting quickly, Link got up and impaled the Iron Knuckle with his sword. It let out a cry of agony and fell in defeat, vanishing into blue flames.

"And that's the end of it!" Link exclaimed.

"Great work, Link!" Peach praised.

Then, they went into the next door, taking them outside where a chest was sitting there. Link opened it, taking out the Silver Gauntlets.

"Hmm, Nabooru was right; they're way too big for any of you to use." Navi observed.

"Well, then I guess we should go back and give them to her." Toad said.

But then, they suddenly heard a scream that made them jump.

"Hey! Where are you taking me?!" the one who screamed cried out. "Yeearggh! Let me go!"

"Was that Nabooru?!" Navi asked.

"Down there!" Yoshi pointed down.

Everyone looked to where he was pointing, where much to their surprise, they saw Nabooru being sucked into some sort of black hole as two old hags that could very well be witches were circling around her while riding on their brooms.

"You…you fiends! Ganondorf's minions!" Nabooru yelled before looking up at the heroes. "Everyone! Get out of here! Now! These witches! They're using black magic on me!" she eventually sinks into the black hole before it disappears. The two witches then cackled to each other as they flew into the temple.

"What happened to Nabooru?!" Luigi exclaimed.

"I have no idea… But we have to get back to the future right now!" Link settled before warping everyone back to the Temple of Time.

There, they went back seven years later before going back to the Desert Colossus to enter the Spirit Temple once again, determined to find and save Nabooru.

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Let's just say that I had fun writing the showdown against the Gerudo Thieves with the Mario cast... Why separate the carpenters and the fights with the Gerudo Thief from the original game while I can just combine them all at once? ;)**

 **Next up, the adult side of the Spirit Temple! Until then! Please review!**


	16. The Spirit Temple

**Sorry for the long wait. Been busy with collage tests.**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 16: The Spirit Temple**

The heroes re-entered the Spirit Temple, and thanks to the Silver Gauntlets, which fit perfectly on Link when he's an adult, Link was able to push the large silver block on the right side of the entrance with ease until it fell into a gap on the floor, allowing them to progress.

At the end of the hallway, they made their way around a Beamos as Link strikes a switch on the ceiling to open a door, where on the other side they were confronted by a Wolfos.

"Don't you think we've seen enough of these already?" Toad questioned as they managed to take the Wolfos down with ease.

"I'm actually with you there." Link replied before playing Zelda's Lullaby on a Triforce symbol to make a chest appear at a faraway platform. He used the Longshot on the chest to reach it and took out the Compass for this dungeon.

They went to another room where they discovered they had to collect Silver Rupees as giant boulders were rolling around. With precise timing and maneuvering, they managed to collect all of the Rupees and went into the next room, where it just held a little chest out in the open.

"I bet this one holds a key." Link said as he walks over to it, but then Navi noticed something at the ceiling:

"Link, look out!"

It was too late, as a Like Like fell from above and swallowed up Link.

"LINK!" the rest of the group yelled as Mario quickly shoots a few fireballs at the Like Like until it melted, and Link came out of it, totally disgusted as you would expect.

"Yuck… Now I know how Luigi felt back at the Fire Temple…" Link groaned.

"Don't even remind me on that…" Luigi muttered as they got the Small Key in the chest.

They then made it back to the main room and used the key on the locked door. Going further in, they dealt with another Like Like, thankfully no one was swallowed up by it this time, and two flying pots, in which the heroes still have no idea how can pots come to life.

After reaching the end of the hall, they climbed up a wall, where up above, there was a mirror with sunlight hitting it. The Mario cast decided to push the mirror around, while Link killed an invisible Floormaster while using the Lens of Truth.

Upon solving the puzzle, the next door opened up, and when they went to the next room, they saw the same statue from when they came in seven years before.

"I feel like this room is important." Link mused.

"What makes you say that?" Peach asked.

"Well, maybe it's something about this large statue."

With that said, Link leapt to the statue's left hand and, seeing the Triforce symbol on it, he played Zelda's Lullaby, causing two treasure chests to appear; one on the statue's right hand, and the other on the opposite platform. Peach went for the former chest, using her dress to float to it and grab a small key, while Link went for the latter chest, which only held a Blue Rupee and then he hit a rusted switch nearby with the Megaton Hammer.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Mario cast saw two torches right in front of the statue from below, so Mario lit them up by shooting two fireballs at them, causing a large chest to appear, and it held… the Dungeon Map?

"Huh, that's odd…" Yoshi mused. "We found the compass first and then the map?"

"I guess not every temple follows this order." Mario stated.

The next few minutes of this temple consisted of our heroes going into three more rooms, dealing with enemies they've seen before from when they entered the temple seven years earlier… including an Iron Knuckle at the last room.

"Another one?" Toad questioned.

"Well, you have to defeat it if you're going to progress." Navi pointed out.

"Exactly." Link nodded, unsheathing his sword and getting ready to fight the Iron Knuckle along with the others.

The Iron Knuckle charged after the heroes and rose its axe to swing it down at them, but they jumped out of the way as Link did a Jump Slash at it, chipping some of its armor out. Mario and Luigi followed suit, swinging their hammers at the Iron Knuckle, and more of its armor came out, including its helmet.

The Iron Knuckle roared furiously and ran after the heroes to swing its axe at them, but Toad fired mushroom spores at it, causing it to cry in pain by the spores as Yoshi tossed an egg bomb, which removed the rest of its armor once the bomb exploded.

Now that the Iron Knuckle's body was exposed, Peach fired a light beam at it to stun it before Link finished it off with one single slash.

"Way to go, everyone!" Navi beamed as the heroes smiled to her.

After that, they went to the opened door, taking them outside with a chest in front of them. Link opened it, revealing the Mirror Shield.

"A new shield?" Link curiously looked at it before strapping it on his back.

"It's a Mirror Shield!" Navi exclaimed. "It has a very polished surface, so you can use it to reflect sunlight just like the mirror we saw back inside!"

"Now this could be useful." Luigi smiled before they all went back inside the temple.

With that, they made through the rest of the temple, with Link using the Mirror Shield to reflect sunlight on every sun symbol he and the others encounter. To get the Boss Key, the heroes had to defeat some Torch Slugs and press a switch in order to extinguish the flames surrounding the chest holding the key.

Finally, when the heroes made it to a platform that lowered down to the room with the statue, Link reflects the light on the statue's head, causing it to disappear, revealing the Boss Door. Ready for whatever they'll encounter on the other side, the heroes went through the door, where they saw two familiar witches floating next to yet another Iron Knuckle sitting on a throne.

"Ho ho ho! Looks like some people are here, Koume." one of the witches cackled.

"Hee hee hee! Looks like it, Kotake!" Koume also cackled as the two turned their heads to the heroes, who were glaring madly at them, remembering that they were the same witches who did something that's probably not good to Nabooru.

"What outrageous fellows they are to intrude so boldly into our temple… Ho ho ho!"

"We should teach these outrageous fellows a lesson! Hee hee hee!"

The twin witches then float away to reveal the Iron Knuckle, who of course appears motionless at first.

"Oh, loyal minion…" Kotake said.

"Destroy these intruders on our behalf!" Koume commanded before she and Kotake vanished from sight.

The Iron Knuckle then rose from the throne and got ready for combat… except that it didn't have its axe, and the moment it realized that, it made a 'hold up' gesture to the heroes before snapping its fingers to summon said axe.

"Awkward…" Toad sweatdropped.

"Well, that aside… You guys ready?" Link asked.

"Ready!" the Mario cast nodded.

The Iron Knuckle ran over to slash them with its axe, but they quickly avoided it as Peach and Toad fired a light blast and mushroom spores respectively at it and Mario and Luigi ran over and shot several fireballs at it before hitting it with their hammers, which was enough to dent part of its armor.

The Iron Knuckle slashed down at the Mario Bros, but they jumped back as Yoshi tossed an egg bomb at it, as it exploded upon contact. Then, Link slashed the Iron Knuckle away and then Mario and Luigi had the idea to run behind it and unleash the Thunder Bros attack (yep, the same one from _Superstar Saga_ ) at it.

That attack severely weakened the Iron Knuckle, allowing Link to slash it from behind and then Mario and Luigi finished it off by swinging their hammers at it as it roared in agony, strong enough for the armor pieces to break apart and fall on to the floor.

But then, once the Iron Knuckle was fully disassembled, much to the heroes' shock, it revealed that the one inside of it was Nabooru! They gasped at that as Nabooru fell on her knees on the floor, probably because of the heavy damage she received during the fight.

"Unnnh…" Nabooru moaned as she got up. "Where am I…?" but then, the twin witches came back, catching her by surprise.

"Well, well… Looks like she's back to normal… Koume…" Kotake mused.

"She's just a little girl, but she commands a lot of respect among the Gerudo, Kotake…" Koume said.

"Maybe we should make her work for the great Ganondorf for a little while longer! Ho ho ho!"

"Then we should brainwash her again! Hee hee hee!"

With that, the witches fired their magic at Nabooru, who tried to make a run for it, and when she got hit… she just disappeared as she screamed. Koume and Kotake gave one final cackle before they vanished.

"Did… Did they just…?!" Luigi stammered.

"They did." Link spoke in a serious tone. "Let's go."

They went into the next room and got to the middle of the arena, where they suddenly began to hear Koume's voice:

"Look at those stupid people! They came to offer themselves as sacrifices to the great Ganondorf…" she said as she and Kotake reappeared. "With my flame, I will burn them to the bone!"

"With my frost, I will freeze them to their souls!" Kotake added.

The witches then got into their brooms and began to fly around the heroes, thus the boss battle of this dungeon had begun.

The first thing the heroes attempted to do against the twins was fire their main projectiles at them, with Link firing arrows, Mario and Luigi shooting fireballs, Peach and Toad tossing turnips, and Yoshi throwing eggs. However, the twins avoided the projectiles gracefully before Kotake launched a stream of ice at them, and on instinct, Link blocked it with the Mirror Shield…, which bounced the stream back and hit Koume.

"YOW!" Koume yelled in pain.

" _Using their own moves against the other one? I think I know just how to beat them._ " Link thought as the heroes proceeded to attack normally until Koume aimed her broom at them and launched fire, but Link used the same strategy from before and reflected the blast right into Kotake.

"YOOOWCH! HOT HOT HOT HOT!" Kotake screamed.

"Nice!" Link grinned as he kept at it for a few more times until the twin witches had enough.

"OK, let's get serious now, Kotake!" Koume exclaimed.

"Oh, OK, Koume." Kotake replied as the witches flew close to each other and began to spin around.

"Kotake and Koume's Double Dynamite Attack!" they yelled in unison as they slowly began to merge into one, which resulted in them becoming a… quite young-looking woman, shall I say. They, or should I say she, was known as Twinrova, wielding both Koume's flame and Kotake's ice.

"What in the…?!" Link gasped as Twinrova flashed him a… rather seductive wink before firing a blast of ice at him, in which he absorbs it with his Mirror Shield.

"Did you just absorb that blast?" Yoshi asked.

"I think I did!" Link exclaimed while Twinrova flies to another spot and prepares to fire another blast of ice.

"Look out, another one is coming!" Navi warned as Link quickly turns around and absorbs the ice blast. "I think one more blast will send it back, so you better hit Twinrova with it!"

"Got it!" Link nodded as he waited for Twinrova to fire another ice blast. Once she did, Link absorbs it, and the shield sends out a stream of ice right at Twinrova, causing her to kneel down as they all went to attack her.

After that, Twinrova flies up again and this time, she fires a blast of fire. Once again, Link rose the Mirror Shield to absorb it. As Link waited for another fire blast, Mario had a great idea and whispered something into Luigi's ear, to which he immediately approves of whatever idea Mario had.

Once Link had absorbed the remaining fire blasts, he returned fire at Twinrova, and then when she was kneeling down again, Mario and Luigi warned the others to stay back before they used Fire Bros at Twinrova just to add more salt in the wound when it comes to fire.

Turns out that this Bros Attack was effective as Twinrova screamed in defeat as she spun wildly in the air before turning back into Koume and Kotake, both looking badly injured. Even that, the heroes braced themselves.

"Shoot! What fresh people! This time we'll get serious. Right, Kotake?" Koume said… only for two halos to appear above their heads as a heavenly light shone down on them.

"What? Hey, Koume, what is that above your head?" Kotake asked as they began to ascend.

"I don't know, but you have one over your head too, Kotake!" aaaand cue their bickering: "But I'm only 400 years old!"

"And I'm just 380 years old!"

"We're twins! Don't try to lie about your age!"

"You must have gone senile!"

"Who are you calling senile?! Is that how you treat your older sister?"

"We are twins! How can you be older?"

"Keeeyaaah! How heartless you are!"

"How can you be so ungrateful?"

"You're heartless!"

"You ungrateful…"

…And with that, they both ascended into the light as they cried in agony.

"We'll come back to haunt you!" were their last words before they were gone for good.

"Well… That was something." Toad remarked.

"You tell us." Peach said before they walked into the blue light.

They were taken to the Chamber of the Sages, where the orange platform in front of them emitted a blue light, revealing Nabooru as the last Sage.

"Everyone, let me thank you." she spoke. "Heheheh… Look what these little people have become in the past seven years – a competent group of heroes!" the heroes couldn't help but smile sheepishly at that. "By the way… I really messed up… I was brainwashed by those old witches and used by Ganondorf to do his evil will…"

" _So that's what happened to her…_ " the heroes thought, finally putting the pieces together.

"But isn't it funny? That a person like me could turn out to be the Sage of Spirit? And now I'm going to fight them as one of the six Sages! Heh heh… I'm going to pay them back for what they did to me! Little people… No… Heroes! Instead of keeping the promise I made back then, I give you these! The Spirit Medallion and the Grand Star of Spirit! Take them!"

Nabooru rose her hands into the air as an orange medallion and an orange Grand Star descended towards the heroes, with Link taking the medallion and the Mario cast taking the Grand Star.

Everything went white for our heroes as they heard Nabooru's parting words:

" _If only I'd known you would become such great heroes… I should have kept the promise I made back then…"_

* * *

Just then, a vision of Rauru came as they listened to his words:

" _Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad! Finally, all of us, the six Sages, have been awakened! The time for the final showdown with the King of Evil and the Tyrant King has come! Before that, though, you should meet the one who is waiting for you… The one who is waiting for you at the Temple of Time…"_

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **You know, I never actually thought of adding the Bros Attacks from the Mario & Luigi games into the story, but I had to come up with a good way for them to stun the Iron Knuckle Nabooru so I went for that. Besides, it's a good way for me to remind back when I did those Mario & Luigi remakes. Good times! :)**

 **On my profile, I decided to delete some of my old stories since they really sucked in my opinion and my writing was not very good back then. Sometimes seeing those old stories made me cringe a bit. It's like I now hate my past self... X( Well, good thing I improvised!**

 **You already know what's coming next, right? ;) Until then! Please review if you're liking this!**


	17. Ganon's Castle

**We're almost at the end!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Chapter 17: Ganon's Castle**

Previously, our heroes have finally awakened all of the six Sages, and Rauru requested them to return to the Temple of Time, which is exactly what they'll do next.

They returned to the Desert Colossus, where Link immediately played the Prelude of Light to warp him and the others back to the Temple of Time in order to meet with the person Rauru mentioned.

Once there, they heard a familiar voice from behind:

"I have been waiting for you, heroes." it was Sheik.

"Sheik…" Link breathed after he and the others turned around.

"Link, the Hero of Time… And Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad, the Heroes from Another World… You have overcome many hardships and awakened six Sages. And now you have a final challenge – a showdown with Ganondorf, the King of Evil… and Bowser, the Tyrant King…"

"WAIT, WHAT?!" the Mario cast's eyes widened upon the mention of the name 'Bowser'.

"BOWSER IS HERE?!" Luigi yelled.

"I should've known…" Mario muttered, clenching his fists in anger. "The name 'Tyrant King' sounded quite familiar to me…"

"But… How did Bowser get into Hyrule as well?" Peach asked.

"I do not know why, unfortunately." Sheik replied with grief. "But it makes even more sense about why you were sent to this world…"

"That is a good point." Toad stated.

"Looks like we'll have to face each of our own enemies." Link said.

"True." Sheik nodded. "But before that…I have things I want to tell only to you. Please listen." everyone nodded. "First, have you heard about the Grand Star of Magic?"

"Well, Rauru mentioned that to us, but we don't know what that is." Yoshi recalled.

"The Grand Star of Magic is another powerful star that if one wields it, it will grant them a huge amount of power. Like with the other Grand Stars, it cannot be wielded by people from this world. This Star's origin is still unknown, but it is also located in the Sacred Realm along with the Triforce and can be enhanced by the power of other Grand Stars."

"Wow…" Toad awed.

"The nature of this Star changes depending on the person wielding it. A pure heart would make it remain a Star. And an evil heart will change it into a Ztar." the Mario cast shuddered at that, knowing how bad Ztars can be. "When the entrance to the Sacred Realm opened up when Link removed the Master Sword, Bowser managed to get ahold of this Star, and due to his evil nature and the fact that he's also from a different world, it changed into a Grand Ztar."

"And since it grants the user a huge amount of power regardless of who touched it, that's how Bowser became the Tyrant King, right?" Mario guessed.

"Correct."

"Yikes…" Luigi trailed. "I can't imagine how dangerous Bowser must be now…"

"But I know that with your combined power and efforts, you can win against him." Sheik encouraged. "Well, now there's something else you must know about the Triforce. It is another unknown legend of the Triforce passed down by the Shadow Folk, the Sheikah…

"If you would seek the sacred triangle, listen well… The resting place of the sacred triangle, the Sacred Realm, is a mirror that reflects what is in the heart… the heart of one who enters it… If an evil heart, the Realm will become full of evil; if pure, the Realm will become a paradise. The Triforce…the sacred triangle… It is a balance that weighs the three forces: Power, Wisdom, and Courage.

"If the heart of the one who holds the sacred triangle has all three forces in balance, that one will gain the True Force to govern all. But if that one's heart is not in balance, the Triforce will separate into three parts: Power, Wisdom, and Courage. Only one part will remain for the one who touched the Triforce…the part representing the force that one most believes in. If that one seeks the True Force, that one must acquire the two lost parts. Those two parts will be held within others chosen by destiny who will bear the Triforce mark on the backs of their hands."

"Now that's some story…" Yoshi breathed in amazement.

"Never knew the Triforce would be such a complicated relic to deal with…" Mario remarked.

"It is." Sheik replied. "Seven years ago, Ganondorf, the King of Thieves, and Bowser used the door you opened in the Temple of Time and entered the Sacred Realm."

"And from there, Bowser took the Grand Star of Magic while Ganondorf took the Triforce, right?" Luigi guessed.

"You're right. But when Ganondorf laid his hands on the Triforce, the legend came true. The Triforce separated into three parts. Only the Triforce of Power remained in Ganondorf's hand. The strength of the Triforce of Power enabled him to become a mighty, evil king, but his and Bowser's dark ambitions were not satisfied. To gain complete mastery of the world, Ganondorf started looking for those chosen by destiny to hold the two other Triforce parts and Bowser is now seeking the other Grand Stars that you all hold."

"So we can't let Bowser get ahold of the Grand Stars we got from the Sages…" Mario stated, earning a nod from Sheik.

"But… who has the other two Triforce parts?" Peach asked.

"The one who holds the Triforce of Courage is…" Sheik pointed at Link. "…you, Link!"

"M-Me?!" Link gasped, while the Mario cast also had the same reaction. "But how?!"

"You've proven yourself as a fearless hero by overcoming great enemies and all sorts of obstacles. Thus, you were worthy enough to wield the Triforce of Courage."

"Unbelievable…"

"And… the last part?" Toad asked.

"The other, who holds the Triforce of Wisdom…" Sheik said, closing her eyes. "…is the seventh Sage, who is destined to be the leader of them all…"

With a few swift arm movements, Sheik rose her hand, showing the Triforce of Wisdom on the back of her hand… before the whole place glowed, so the heroes shielded their eyes. When the glow faded, the heroes uncovered their eyes… and saw that in Sheik's place… was none other than Princess Zelda as they all gasped.

"It is I, the Princess of Hyrule, Zelda." she said.

"Princess Zelda?" Link gasped. "Sheik was you the whole time?!"

"I apologize for meeting you in disguise, but it was necessary to hide from the King of Evil. Please forgive me…"

"You don't have to." Peach smiled. "What matters is that you're safe." Zelda couldn't help but smile as well before getting serious again and slowly walks towards them.

"On that day, seven years ago, Ganondorf attacked Hyrule Castle. I saw you all as I was escaping from the castle with my attendant, Impa. I thought I should entrust the ocarina to you… I thought that would be our best chance… As long as you had the ocarina in your possession, I thought Ganondorf and Bowser could never enter the Sacred Realm, but…" she began to put on a sad frown. "But something I could never expect happened…

"After you opened the Door of Time, the Master Sword sealed you away in the Sacred Realm… Your spirits remained in the Sacred Realm…and then the Triforce and the Grand Star of Magic fell into Ganondorf and Bowser's hands. They went on to invade the Sacred Realm… Ganondorf and Bowser had become the Evil King and the Tyrant King, and the Sacred Realm became a world of evil. All of this is an unfortunate coincidence."

" _Oh dear…_ " the heroes thought alarmed. " _So we made things even worse…_ "

"I passed myself off as a Sheikah and hoped that you would return. I waited for seven years…" Zelda then puts on a confident smile while placing her hands together. "And…now you are back. The dark age ruled by Ganondorf the Evil King and Bowser the Tyrant King will end!"

"You bet!" Toad grinned as everyone else had confident looks on their faces.

"The six Sages will open the sealed door and lure Ganondorf back into the Sacred Realm. I will then seal the door to the Sacred Realm from this world. Thus, Ganondorf the Evil King will vanish from Hyrule. Meanwhile, Bowser will be sent back to his world once he also falls."

" _If we stick together, we'll be unstoppable!_ " the heroes thought.

"Everyone… In order to do this, I need your courage again. Please protect me while I do my part." Zelda requested. "And here is a weapon that can penetrate the Evil King's defenses… The power given to the chosen ones… The sacred Light Arrow!"

A golden magic circle appeared around Zelda as she uses it to conjure an orb of light, which materialized into the Light Arrows, flying over to Link's inventory.

"Awesome! Thanks, Zelda." Link thanked.

"You're welcome." Zelda replied before turning to Peach. "And Peach, your light powers that you can unleash can also work like the Light Arrows. It is all thanks to the power of the six Grand Stars you collected that granted you this ability as well. In truth, all of your powers have been improved by the same reason."

"Really? That's great!" Peach beamed.

"That's what the Grand Stars do in this world…?" Mario breathed. "That's incredible…"

"Isn't it?" Zelda smiled. "Alright, now let's mo-…"

All of a sudden, the whole place began to rumble, interrupting Zelda.

"W-What the?! What's going on?!" Luigi flinched.

"That rumbling… It can't be?!" Zelda exclaimed… before she was suddenly encased in a large pink crystal.

"NO!" the heroes yelled.

" _ **Princess Zelda…you foolish traitor!"**_ Ganondorf's voice came. _**"I commend you for avoiding my pursuit for seven long years."**_

"Ganondorf…" Link growled under his breath.

" _ **But you let your guard down… I and Ganondorf knew you would appear if we let these chumps wander around!"**_ Bowser's voice came after.

"Bowser…" Mario muttered, clearly with a hint of venom in his voice.

" _ **Looks like you geniuses finally discovered it was me, huh? You could say that I was sent to this world by a magical accident, and I'm glad I got sent here!"**_

" _Magical accident… It has to be Kamek again…_ " Mario thought.

" _ **I convinced Ganondorf that he and I would make fine partners, and I was right!"**_ it was at this moment that Zelda let out a yelp as her body inclined upwards. _**"Our only mistake was to slightly underestimate the power of you, jerks."**_ Zelda began to float up in the air.

" _ **No, Bowser… It was not their power we misjudged. It was the power of the Triforce of Courage!"**_ Ganondorf corrected him. _**"But with the Triforce of Wisdom that Zelda has… And the Grand Stars these fools from the other world have… When we obtain all of these… Then we will become the true rulers of the world!"**_

" _ **Oh, I like the sound of that! I've been wanting this for a long time! I can even use the power of the Grand Ztar to crush Mario and his stupid friends!"**_

" _ **If you want to rescue Zelda, come to my castle!"**_

With that, the crystal containing Zelda vanished as both Ganondorf and Bowser laughed evilly.

"No…" Link breathed before punching the ground in anger. "This CAN'T be happening!" the Mario cast looked at him while frowning as they could hear him crying in frustration.

"Link…" Navi whispered saddened.

"While I also get pretty mad that Bowser attacks the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnaps Peach, I never take this too seriously like Link here…" Mario remarked.

"We know that, bro." Luigi said with a nod.

"Oh, I hope Link is alright…" Peach lamented.

" _Zelda was taken away… There are two big bads to handle… What SHOULD I do?!_ " Link thought as more tears escaped his eyes.

"…aster…"suddenly, Link heard the voice of a woman, but it sounded robotic. "…Master Link…"

" _Wait, where did that come from?_ " Link thought as his eyes widened.

"Master… Don't blame yourself." the same voice came again, and Link was able to find its source, but when he discovered it, he just couldn't believe it: that voice was coming from his Master Sword!

" _Is my sword… talking?!_ " Link was surprised that no one else noticed that. Perhaps he was the only one who could listen to the voice?

"You have your friends by your side. Together, you can save this world." the voice said as Link carefully listened to it despite being absolutely dumbfounded that his sword was actually talking. "Please… Do not give up, Master…"

Upon hearing these words, Link turned around, seeing that his companions had looks of concern for him.

"Link, are you alright?" Yoshi asked.

"I'm fine…" Link replied. "Didn't you guys hear a voice?"

"What voice?" Toad tilted his head.

" _I guess no one except for me heard it…_ " Link thought, his guesses from before confirmed right.

"Look, Link…" Navi spoke up. "Remember that you're not alone. You've got your new friends with you!"

"That's right." Mario nodded with a smile. "With our help, we can take down Ganondorf and Bowser easily."

"We are your strength, Link." Luigi added. "We're always by your side!"

"So what if Zelda got captured? We can save her!" Toad exclaimed.

"We came so far, Link. We can't give up now." Peach encouraged.

"Together until the end!" Yoshi chimed.

Link was touched by his new friends' encouraging words. That and combined with the words from the mysterious woman he heard really helped. He soon felt his confidence returning; he was ready to spring back into action again! He and his friends would infiltrate Ganondorf's castle, take down the two evil kings, and save Zelda and the entire kingdom of Hyrule.

"Thank you, everyone. All of you." he smiled before flashing a confident smirk and declaring, "Let us go to Ganondorf's castle and save Hyrule!"

"Yeah!" the rest exclaimed as they all exited the Temple of Time and made their way to Ganon's Castle.

* * *

Ganon's Castle is were once stood Hyrule Castle, built over its rubbles and ashes, spearing the darkened skies above the once vibrant Hyrule Kingdom. There was a large pool of lava under and around the floating castle, making it inaccessible at the moment.

"Oh my…" Peach whispered. "This is where Hyrule Castle was supposed to be, right?"

"Yeah, and now Ganondorf took over it and built his own castle…" Toad breathed.

"Well, anyways, let's go to the castle!" Link declared.

"Hold up, I'm detecting some sort of power from somewhere around here…" Navi mused as she flew around until she found the source, "Aha! Over there!"

"Where?"

"Follow me!"

The heroes followed Navi as she led them to a cave blocked with a boulder. Link blew it up with a bomb and they all went inside, which was revealed to be a Fairy Fountain. Link summons the Great Fairy, who hands him the Golden Gauntlets, which allows him to lift even heavier things more than just large blocks.

Upon exiting the Fountain, they immediately went towards the castle, only that they discovered that it was unreachable because there was a large gap between them and the castle.

"Um… what now?" Yoshi asked.

" _Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad…can you hear me? It's Rauru, the Sage."_ suddenly, Rauru's voice echoed around them. _"Heroes from Another World… Release the six Grand Stars you have in your possession. We six will gather their power to create a bridge to the castle where Ganondorf and Bowser dwells… The castle's keep, which is known as Ganon's Tower, is protected by six evil barriers. Bring down the six barriers, and save Princess Zelda!"_

With that, the Mario cast took out all of the Grand Stars and rose them up into the air as they glowed. Eventually, a rain of colorful lights came in front of them as a rainbow bridge leading to the castle's entrance was created, leaving the heroes amazed. With their work done, the Grand Stars returned into their inventory.

"Alright, friends… Let's go!" Link exclaimed as they walked across the bridge, ready for what new challenges awaited them up ahead. " _Hang on, Zelda… We're coming!_ " he thought.

Once they made it to the castle's foyer, they noticed that Rauru was right; the central tower was locked behind a wall of magic, which seems to be powered up by six barriers, each with a different color. The heroes looked around and saw five doors… but where's the sixth one?

"Strange… There's six barriers but only five doors…" Navi pondered. "Where could the last one be?"

"Hmm… I can see a large stone pillar far ahead." Yoshi pointed as they all walked up to it.

"Something tells me that I should be able to lift it…" Link breathed, looking at his Golden Gauntlets before walking up to the pillar and putting his hands underneath.

"Uh… Are you SURE you can do that?!" Luigi questioned.

"I… can…try…!" Link groaned. "Nnngh…!"

"I'd be amazed if he actually manages to lift THAT." Toad said.

"Nnnngh… GRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Link yelled, lifting up the pillar and tossing it behind him, right at the wall of magic… and weirdly enough, it didn't make a single dent on it, but it did leave the Mario cast speechless.

"SWEET MOTHER OF-…" Toad yelled in surprise while the rest of the Mario cast jawdropped.

"Heh, I knew I could do it." Link chuckled as he dusted off his hands before turning around, only to see the Mario cast still looking shocked. "Hello? Guys?" he waved his hand in front of them until they blinked a few times to snap out of it.

"I never imagined I would say that, but DANG!" Luigi exclaimed.

"I know, right?!" Toad threw in.

"Alright, anyways…" Link quickly changes the subject. "Perhaps we can split up and each handle a room."

"Now that you said it, all of these doors have the symbol of each Sage above them." Navi informed. "Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, Spirit, and Light!"

"I'll take the Forest." Yoshi said.

"I'll take Spirit." Peach said.

"I'll do Shadow." Mario said.

"I'll handle Fire." Toad said.

"I'll take on Water." Luigi said.

"Then that leaves Light to me." Link said. "I'll give you some of my items in order to help you out more." besides from handing a few of the Mario cast an item, he also handed them each a Light Arrow, as he had a feeling they'll be needing it.

With that settled, the group split up and went to their respective doors.

* * *

 _ **With Yoshi…**_

Yoshi saw a few torches in a circle and one in a platform, so after he got rid of a Wolfos that popped out of nowhere, he absorbs a Power Flower to grant him the ability to shoot fire from his mouth. With this ability, he lit up all the torches, unlocking the door. Yoshi moved forward, getting five Silver Rupees with ease by just Flutter Jumping to each platform and also having to get rid of a Beamos by tossing an egg bomb at it, then got into the next room to see some sort of large sphere.

The green dinosaur knew this had to be destroyed, so he took out the Light Arrow Link had given to him and impaled the sphere, making it explode as an image of Saria appeared.

"The Forest Barrier is dispelled! Hurry up!" she exclaimed before Yoshi was teleported out.

* * *

 _ **With Toad…**_

"Okay, this place is actually hot…" Toad groaned, fanning himself to cool down after collecting the Silver Rupees throughout the use of mushroom springs he conjured and going into the next room, where he took out the Light Arrow and threw it at the sphere, destroying it as an image of Darunia appeared.

"The Fire Barrier is dispelled! Hurry up, Brother!" he exclaimed before Toad was teleported out.

* * *

 _ **With Luigi…**_

"Great, why did I even choose this one?!" he complained as he was shivering like crazy. Even that, he tries his hard to focus on the main task and not let the cold stop or distract him.

Luigi first took out two bottles and stocked some blue fire before dumping one of them on red ice blocking a door, and then he sneezed.

"This place is even colder than the Ice Cavern…!" Luigi shivered.

He went into the next room, and because he did not want to deal with a complicated block pushing puzzle because the cold was getting to him very quickly, he decided to take out a Super Acorn to transform into Flying Squirrel Luigi in order for him to simply glide his way to the platform. There, he thawed more red ice, revealing a rusted switch that he hit it with his hammer, eventually unlocking the door leading to the barrier's source.

Desperate to get out of this place quickly, Luigi went to the next room… while sneezing some more and it even ended up deactivating his Power-Up, and impaled the sphere with the Light Arrow, which then exploded as an image of Ruto appeared.

"The Water Barrier is dispelled! Hurry up!" she exclaimed before Luigi was teleported out.

* * *

 _ **With Mario…**_

"It's a good thing Link handed me the Lens of Truth. Otherwise, I don't know how I can handle this room." Mario spoke to himself as he was using the Lens to navigate through the invisible bridges. One of them led Mario to a rusted switch, in which he hammers it down to unlock the door at the far end.

On the next room, Mario takes out the Light Arrow and throws it at the sphere, causing it to explode as an image of Impa appeared.

"The Shadow Barrier is dispelled! Please save the princess!" she exclaimed before Mario was teleported out.

* * *

 _ **With Peach…**_

Peach first had to handle a Beamos, in which she disposed of easily by throwing a Bob-omb at it. With the room now cleared, she proceeded to collect the Silver Rupees, use a Bombchu to activate a switch, and find the correct sun to aim her light beam at to unlock the door.

Now that the door was unlocked, Peach went into the next room and destroyed the sphere with the Light Arrow as an image of Nabooru appeared.

"The Spirit Barrier is dispelled! Hurry up!" she exclaimed before Peach was teleported out.

* * *

 _ **With Link…**_

The Hero of Time's trial through this door mostly consisted of him defeating invisible enemies (and because he didn't have the Lens of Truth, he simply went for Din's Fire), playing Zelda's Lullaby to get a Small Key, collecting Silver Rupees while avoiding rolling boulders and going through a wall in order to reach the source of the Light Barrier.

There, Link fired a Light Arrow at the sphere to destroy it as an image of Rauru appeared.

"The Light Barrier is dispelled! Hurry!" he exclaimed before Link was teleported out.

Eventually, all of the heroes found themselves back at the foyer, where they watched all six barriers dispelling at the same time. Without the barriers, the wall of magic vanishes, allowing the heroes to progress.

Determination filled their faces, as they were nearing their final battle soon enough…

 **To be continued…**

* * *

 **Yep, I even decided to sneak in Fi in this story since according to Skyward Sword, she's technically in a coma state but perhaps she can still temporarily talk to her Master even if she can't physically show up (this is even shown in Breath of the Wild). Also, now you know what is this Grand Star of Magic I've mentioned back a few chapters ago!**

 **Just one more chapter and this story is done! Please review!**


	18. Legacy of the Heroes

**This really took a while! But the final chapter is here!**

 **Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

 **Final Chapter: Legacy of the Heroes**

The heroes stepped into the main tower, as they began to hear something echoing around the place. It was faint, but our heroes could still hear it.

"Is this an organ?" Toad wondered.

"Sounds like it." Mario confirmed. "It looks like Ganondorf and Bowser want to make a lot of tension."

"Well, considering the situation we're in…" Luigi remarked.

"Alright, let's not waste any more time." Link said. "Is everyone ready to take down Ganondorf and Bowser once and for all?"

"We're ready!" the Mario cast replied in unison.

With that, they made their way up, eventually reaching a spiral staircase. They proceeded to climb up the staircase as the sounds of the organ were getting louder and louder… until they finally came upon a large fancy door. Knowing this has to be where Ganondorf and Bowser are located, the heroes breathed deeply, ready to end this, and went inside.

They found themselves standing in a wide room filled with stained glasses on the windows and a red carpet was extending all the way to the organ, which was none other than Ganondorf playing it. Meanwhile, Bowser was standing at Ganondorf's side with his back turned to the heroes.

However, what caught the heroes' attention the most was the crystal holding Princess Zelda captive, hovering right above Ganondorf.

"Zelda!" the heroes yelled.

But then, before they could do anything, the back of Link's left hand suddenly began to glow, as the mark of the Triforce of Courage appeared. Meanwhile, the mark of the Triforce of Wisdom appeared on the back of Zelda's right hand as she let out a surprised gasp.

"Heh… You heard that, Ganondorf, didn't you?" Bowser chuckled darkly as Ganondorf stops playing the organ.

"Yes…" Ganondorf smirked. "The Triforce parts are resonating… They are combining into one again… The two Triforce parts that I could not capture on that day seven years ago… I didn't expect they would be hidden within you two!" Ganondorf then stands up from his seat. "And now, finally, all the Triforce parts have gathered here!"

Bowser then turns around. "And so have the other Grand Stars! That way, I can finally crush those pathetic fools!"

"Heh heh heh…" Ganondorf chuckled as he also turns around. "These toys are too much for you!"

"We command you to return/hand them to us!" Ganondorf and Bowser declared in unison, with Bowser saying the word 'hand', as they show the mark of the Triforce of Power and the Grand Ztar respectively before they let out a yell as a wave of purple energy flowed towards the heroes.

"Nnnngh… W-What's going on…?!" Link groaned as he and the Mario cast tried to fight off against the waves.

"W-Whoa!" Navi was thrown back by the waves. "Guys! I can't help you! Because of the waves of darkness, I can't get close! I'm sorry!"

"Navi, no…!"

Just then, the whole place changed into a wide open room, perfect for a dual boss battle.

"Hmph, let's just get this over with, shall we?" Bowser smirked, cracking his knuckles while Ganondorf let out another evil chuckle as he began to float in the air.

"Link, you handle Ganondorf." Mario spoke. "We'll handle Bowser!"

Link nodded, readying his sword and shield as he focused his glare at Ganondorf while the Mario cast took on fighting stances as they focused on Bowser. The final battle was about to begin.

Ganondorf made his first move by punching his fist on the ground, creating a shockwave that knocked down most of the platforms in the room while the heroes thankfully jumped to avoid the shockwave. After that, Ganondorf rose his fist up into the air, creating a ball of energy before sending it at Link.

" _This again?_ " Link thought. " _Okay, I guess._ " as he slashed the energy ball back… and Ganondorf smacked it back… basically, it obviously acted like a game of tennis not too much different from what happened back with Phantom Ganon at the Forest Temple.

Meanwhile, with the Mario cast against Bowser, Mario took out his hammer before running over to his archenemy and swung it down, but Bowser blocked the attack with his arm and dropkicked Mario away. Bowser then proceeded to breathe fire at them, but they avoided the stream of fire and Mario and Luigi quickly shot fireballs at him while Yoshi tossed an egg bomb at him.

"Bah! It takes more than fireballs and bombs to beat me, losers!" Bowser mocked… until he was hit by Peach's light beam. "AAARGH!" he yelled in pain. "What the heck?!"

"But you can't withstand light!" Peach smirked.

"GRRR! You'll pay for that!" Bowser snarled and charged after them.

Back at the volleying, Ganondorf finally gets hit by his own energy ball, so Link wasted no time and fired a Light Arrow at him, which shocked him greatly and he knelt on the floor as Link proceeded to slash at him repeatedly. Ganondorf floats back again, and this time, he charges up a more powerful attack in which he began to conjure a large sphere of energy. However… Link ain't having any of that since he saw that Ganondorf was exposed while charging up the attack so he simply fired another Light Arrow at him and the same thing from before happened.

But after the last barrage of sword slashes from Link hit him, Ganondorf decided to change things up a little. He stands up and summons a large sword.

"Not bad, kid! But I'm just getting started!" Ganondorf declared, holding his sword with both hands.

"So am I!" Link shot back as he ran forward to slash him, but his sword clashed with Ganondorf's as they struggled for a little bit until Ganondorf jumped back and tried to slash Link, but he jumped back to avoid the attack.

After getting hit by a lot of light beams from Peach, Bowser had enough of this and went all wild on them, doing a flurry of claw swipes at them. The Mario cast kept dodging and then Mario and Luigi attacked him again until Luigi uppercutted him high into the air with a Super Jump Punch where Toad created a mushroom trampoline to bounce high and release mushroom spores at him. This knocked Bowser down to the ground where Peach was ready to do a Peach Bomber at him, but he swiped her away as he got up.

Ganondorf leaps toward Link to slash him down, but he blocked the attack with his shield and tried to counter back, only for Ganondorf to kick him away. Link quickly got up and blocks a sword thrust from Ganondorf before slashing him repeatedly, but he kept jumping away until both of their swords collided with each other again. They struggled for a bit before leaping away from each other.

"You fight well, kid. I give props to that." Ganondorf said. "But this isn't enough to beat me! Why don't you just give up?"

"I'll never give up! EVER!" Link shot back, holding his sword and shield aloft as Ganondorf does a 'come at me!' taunt to Link, in which he responded by charging straight towards Ganondorf, only for their swords to collide yet again.

However, Link had a trick up his sleeve as he suddenly rolled behind Ganondorf and did a low sword slash to knock him to the ground, and because he was rather slow at getting up, this gave enough time for Link to fire a Light Arrow at him, stunning him down to the ground.

"Now THIS will end it!" Link declared before impaling his sword in Ganondorf's stomach as Ganondorf had a pained look in his eyes as Link removed the sword.

At the same time, Peach managed to stun Bowser again with a light beam, causing him to fall on his back on the ground as Mario came in by leaping into the air and hitting Bowser's gut very hard with his hammer as Bowser roared in agony.

Defeated, both villains slowly kneeled up while panting heavily as they kept a hand clutched on their chests as the heroes braced themselves.

"The Great Evil King Ganondorf…beaten by this kid?!" Ganondorf growled.

"And I… once again, have been beaten by these chumps…" Bowser muttered.

"Nnngh…!" Ganondorf groaned… before standing up and yelling loudly as his body began to emit a glow as the whole room began to collapse around them.

* * *

After a bright glow, the whole place was now reduced to rubble as the heroes found themselves standing outside, watching Ganondorf collapse to the ground along with Bowser, who also surprisingly survived the blow.

"Is it…over?" Yoshi breathed.

"Guys! You did it!" Navi came to them. "I was so worried for you! I wanted to help you, but I couldn't…"

"Navi…" Link smiled. "That's all right."

"Hey… look up there!" Toad pointed up, so everyone else looked up to see the pink crystal containing Zelda descending to the ground before it disappeared around her.

"Zelda is free!" Peach beamed as Zelda looked to them with a smile.

"Thank you, everyone." she said before turning to Ganondorf and Bowser unconscious on the ground. "Ganondorf… Pitiful man… Same for Bowser… Without strong, righteous minds, they could not control the power of the two relics…and…"

All of a sudden, the whole place begun to shake, catching everyone by surprise.

"W-What's happening?!" Link asked.

"Everyone, listen to me! This tower will collapse soon!" Zelda warned.

"What?! Oh, crap! They're trying to take us down with them!" Luigi panicked.

"You're right! With their last breath, Ganondorf and Bowser are trying to crush us in the ruins of the tower!"

"Then we need to hurry and escape!" Mario hollered as everyone else nodded in agreement before making a run for it.

On the way, not only the heroes had to rely on Zelda to open the doors, but they also had to deal with a few of Ganondorf's last bodyguards, being two Stalfos while Zelda herself gets trapped inside a column of fire. Thankfully, the heroes tore down the Stalfos quickly enough to keep moving until they eventually reached the exit.

As they ran out of the collapsing castle, they all watched it falling completely, with towers crumbling before falling down, roads breaking apart, and the main tower sinking alongside many explosions until the castle was reduced to nothing but a huge pile of rubble.

" ***pant* *pant*** We… made it…" Link panted as everyone else sighed in relief.

"Yes…" Zelda breathed. "It's over… It's finally over…"

"Thank goodness…" Peach whispered. "But I can't help but ask… What about Ganondorf and Bowser?"

"Do not worry, Peach. I and the six Sages will do our part."

That is, until suddenly, a loud noise was heard, startling everyone as they turned to the ruins of the fallen castle in alarm, with Link placing a protective arm in front of Zelda.

"What was that sound?" Zelda asked.

"I don't know…" Link awed. "But something tells me that it didn't sound like a good thing."

"Should we go check it out?" Yoshi suggested.

"Let's do it." Link nodded as he and the Mario cast walked forward… until a wall of fire surrounded the edge of the place, cutting the heroes' path to Zelda.

"Guys!" Zelda cried.

"Oh no! Zelda!" Link turned around in alarm.

"Uh, Link…" Toad trailed as he and the others were looking at the rubble with frightened looks.

Why? Because the rubble began to shake wildly… before Ganondorf and Bowser suddenly emerged out of the pile, their eyes glowing ominously in the dark.

"GANONDORF AND BOWSER?!" everyone yelled.

"THEY'RE STILL ALIVE?!" Link yelled.

"We… are not… done… **YET**!" Ganondorf and Bowser declared in unison as they showed the Triforce of Power and the Grand Ztar respectively and they both roared loudly as they were surrounded in a bright light.

The heroes watched in horror as Ganondorf and Bowser began to drastically change. While Ganondorf became a massive bipedal boar-like creature wielding two large swords, Bowser became a larger version of himself, albeit looking more fierce and ferocious and his claws and spikes were even more spiky than ever. Their hatred for the heroes dramatically increased, Ganondorf and Bowser were able to transform into Ganon and Giga Bowser respectively.

"WH-WHAT?!" Luigi yelled in horror.

"Has the Triforce of Power and the Grand Ztar gone out of control?!" Mario questioned.

"They're filled with Ganondorf and Bowser's hate for you, guys!" Navi stated. "There's no way they're going to hold me back again! This time, we fight together!"

"If that's the way they want to play, all right!" Link exclaimed, readying his sword.

However, with loud roars, Ganon starts swinging his swords wildly… until one of the swings actually managed to knock Link's Master Sword out of his grasp, landing all the way near Zelda.

"No!" Link yelled. "The Master Sword!"

"Link, how could you lose it?!" Toad questioned. "Without it, you can't beat Ganondorf!"

"I'll try to find a solution! You guys focus once again on Bowser!"

"Well, alright." Yoshi nodded.

"Please be careful, Link!" Peach said.

"Don't worry, I'll help him out!" Navi assured.

With that, the Mario cast approached Giga Bowser, already freaked out by his new appearance alone.

"So the power of the Grand Ztar along with his hate for us did this to him?!" Toad flinched. "That's so freaky!"

"You tell me…" Luigi nodded in agreement.

"As powerful as he is now, we can't let ourselves be defeated!" Mario declared. "Let us fight him in the same way we did before this transformation!"

"Right!" the rest of the cast nodded, getting ready to fight.

Giga Bowser roared and breathed fire at them, as it was bigger and dangerous than regular Bowser's flames, but they quickly avoided it. Mario and Luigi absorbed a Fire Flower and started shooting fireballs at Giga Bowser repeatedly, but he shrugged off the fireballs easily and used an icy Whirling Fortress, forcing them all to dodge, but unfortunately, Yoshi wasn't so lucky and got hit by the attack.

"Wah!" he cried before quickly recovering and throwing eggs at Giga Bowser, but he just brushed them off.

He then proceeded to swipe at them with his claws, in which the Mario cast would have been sliced to pieces had they not dodged. Mario and Luigi then proceeded to hammer Giga Bowser repeatedly but he kicked them away, disabling their Power-Ups, and spun around, which knocked Toad off his feet since he was hit by his tail, and uses Bowser Bomb at them, but they fortunately got out of the way in time.

Meanwhile, Link and Navi are still trying to locate Ganon's weak spot as Link kept continuously dodging his attacks.

"Navi, quick! I can't dodge him all day!" Link ushered.

"I'm trying as quickly as I can!" Navi replied as she was flying around Ganon, making sure she was also avoiding his attacks. Then, she saw that Ganon's tail looked a bit off compared to the rest of his body. "Hey, Link! I think I found it!" she called out.

"Really?! Where is it?!"

"The tail! Try going for his tail!"

After ducking another attack from Ganon, Link proceeded to run behind him and reach his tail. Unfortunately, Ganon wasn't dumb enough to know that Link was going for his tail and quickly turned around, striking an unsuspecting Link with his sword, as not only he was sent flying away but it also made a blood cut on his arm.

"AAAAGH!" Link yelled.

"LINK!" Navi cried out, flying over to him. "Link, snap out of it!"

But Link would not get up since he was badly injured. Navi looked behind her and saw that Ganon was approaching her and Link.

"Uh oh!" Navi gulped.

Because she was trapped behind the wall of fire, Zelda could do nothing but watch the heroes struggling to beat the two large beasts.

" _If only I could help them…_ " she thought.

Just then, the Master Sword emitted a glow as a peculiar noise came out of it, catching Zelda's attention as she turned around in surprise.

"Your Grace…" the same feminine voice that had spoken to Link previously echoed from the Master Sword. "Toss me back to my Master…"

" _Your Grace…? No one has never referred me as that…_ " Zelda thought as she walked up to the Master Sword. " _But if that sword was giving me orders that'll lead us to victory…_ " she pulls the sword from the ground with a determined look. " _…then I'll obey it!_ "

"Link! Please get up!" Navi called out as Ganon was getting dangerously closer to them.

"Nnngh…" Link groaned, struggling to get up.

"Link!" Zelda exclaimed. "The Master Sword! Catch!" she tosses the sword to Link's direction.

Then, as if responding Zelda instantly, Link manages to get up quickly and catches the Master Sword with his hand, leaving Navi surprised while Ganon had a look of disbelief on his face.

"Ganondorf… You're still… making the same mistake…" Link growled as he rolled under Ganon's legs. "Don't count me out… until the fight is DONE!" he strikes Ganon's tail with his sword, and since it was the Master Sword, Ganon roared in pain from that.

"Go, Link!" Navi cheered.

Back with Giga Bowser, it came to a point that he managed to grab Peach, leaving the rest of the Mario cast shocked.

"Agh! Let go of me, you monster!" Peach demanded angrily, but Giga Bowser's grip was too tight. Then, an idea came to Peach and she blasted Giga Bowser with a light beam, causing him to let go of her due to the pain.

"He's still weak to your light!" Mario exclaimed. "Peach, we'll distract him while you use your powers to good measure!"

"You got it, Mario!" Peach replied with a wink as everyone spread out, ready to distract Giga Bowser.

Mario jumps up to Giga Bowser and uppercuts him on the jaw, but he punched him away. Thankfully, Mario manages to recover fast once he landed on the ground as Peach unleashes another light beam at Giga Bowser. Toad then absorbs an Ice Flower and shot ice balls at Giga Bowser, only for him to melt them by breathing fire at them before doing a fiery headbutt at Toad, knocking him away and disabling his Power-Up.

Luigi charges up a Green Missile to smack into Giga Bowser, which actually turned into a misfire so it really did some damage on him, but then he backhanded Luigi away and was about to do a Flying Slam with him, only to get hit by another light beam.

While this was happening, Link was doing a great job continuously hitting Ganon's tail while avoiding his sword swings. The process continued on until Ganon finally fell on his knees to the ground as the same thing happened to Giga Bowser once he was hit by a lot of light beams.

"Finally, he's down!" Link exclaimed.

"And so is Giga Bowser!" Navi pointed to the downed Giga Bowser.

Just then, two light beams came and each struck Ganon and Giga Bowser as they roared in pain. At first, the heroes thought they were coming from Peach, but they actually came from Zelda, who had both arms extended in order to unleash the attack.

"Zelda?!" Link exclaimed in shock.

"I'm using my power to hold them!" Zelda replied. "Link, you use your sword and deliver the final blow to the Evil King! And Mario and friends, release the Grand Stars and return the Tyrant King back to normal!"

The Mario cast did just what Zelda told them to do and released the six Grand Stars, as a beam of their respective color shot out from them and struck Giga Bowser as he roared in pain before changing back into regular Bowser.

It was at this moment that the Master Sword glowed again, catching Link by surprise as the same feminine voice spoke to him:

"Master, you're at maximum power. Use me to finish off the demon king!"

Without any hesitation, Link holds the Master Sword aloft, ready to end this once and for all, and does a few slices at Ganon's forehead before finally impaling it.

"Six Sages… Now!" Zelda declared as she rose her hands up into the air, creating a ball of light. "Time to seal Ganondorf and return Bowser to the world he came from!"

At the Chamber of the Sages, the six Sages heard Zelda's pleas as Rauru spoke up:

"Ancient Creators of Hyrule! Now open the sealed door to send the Evil Incarnation of Darkness into the void of the Evil Realm, and send the Tyrant King back into his homeworld!"

The six Sages then used their power, first blasting beams of light at Bowser in order to send him back to the Mushroom World.

"GRRRAAAH!" Bowser roared. "The nerve of you…! Stupid Mario and friends… Do not think this is over… I'll be **BACK**!" he then disappeared completely.

With the first task fulfilled, the six Sages used their power again, this time, to open the door to the Evil Realm. Ganon soon found himself getting sucked inside the white void created by the Sages and because he was too weak to even move, he was sucked into the void with ease.

Inside the void, Ganon changes back into Ganondorf as he was floating around with a look of intense hate in his face.

"YOU… CURSE YOU…ZELDA! CURSE YOU…SAGES! CURSE YOU…HEROES!" he yelled. "Someday…when this seal is broken… That is when I will exterminate your descendants! As long as the Triforce of Power is in my hand…" he then is sent flying away into the depths of the void, never to be seen again… Well, we hope.

* * *

We now move on to a clear blue sky, where apparently Zelda and our heroes appear to be floating… somehow. Anyhow, it seems that peace has finally returned to Hyrule, but that also means the end of this adventure.

"Thank you, everyone…" Zelda smiled. "Thanks to you, Ganondorf has been sealed inside the Evil Realm and Bowser has returned to his home! Thus, peace will once again reign in this world…for a time."

"At least it will be enough time for everything to be fixed, right?" Link replied, which earned a giggle from Zelda before she put on a frown.

"Zelda? What's wrong?" Peach asked in concern.

"All the tragedy that has befallen Hyrule was my doing… I was so young…I could not comprehend the consequences of trying to control the Sacred Realm. I dragged you into it too." Zelda lamented. "Now it is time for me to make up for my mistakes…"

"Zelda, you don't have to…" Link frowned.

"But I insist, Link. You must lay the Master Sword to rest and close the Door of Time… However, by doing this, the road between times will be closed…" Zelda then extends her hand to Link. "Link, give the ocarina to me… As a Sage, I can return you and the others to your original time with it."

"You can send us back…?" Luigi whispered. "Are we going home…?"

"Hold on a second!" Link interfered. "I didn't fight because I and my friends were drawn into the conflict… I fought…to save you, Zelda." he had a saddened look on his face because he didn't want to say goodbye to Zelda after everything he had done for her.

" ***sigh*** I understand that. But… With my father gone, I must rule over Hyrule." Zelda said cresfallen. "It is a great responsibility…and honor." she then rose her head back up. "Besides, heroes aren't needed during peacetime. You and the others should be back to your homes…where you're needed the most."

"She's right, Link." Mario told Link while putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're still technically a child in the body of an adult. And as for us, we do not belong in this world to begin with. Soon we'll eventually part ways as well."

Link looked at Mario's friends, who were all mirroring his expression, and then back at Zelda. He knew there was no other way; since the beginning of the adventure, once all of that was taken care of, he had to part ways with them one day. He eventually gave in, and kneeled down in front of Zelda while placing a clenched fist on his chest.

"I am the Hero of Time." he said. "No matter where or when I am, I will fight for Hyrule… and for Princess Zelda." after that, he stands up, takes out the Ocarina of Time and hands it to Zelda.

"Peace has returned to Hyrule… It is time for us to say good-bye…" Zelda breathed sorrowfully as a few tears escaped her eyes while taking the ocarina. "Now go home, everyone. Regain your lost time… Home…where you are supposed to be… The way you are supposed to be…"

After wiping out her tears, Zelda closes her eyes and plays her lullaby on the ocarina, which causes a blue beam of light to engulf the heroes. Then, they began to ascend as they looked down at Zelda tearfully before they faded away.

" _Link… Mario… Luigi… Peach… Yoshi… Toad… Thank you…"_ Zelda's voice echoed. _"Good-bye…"_

* * *

Everything for the heroes felt like they were floating in an endless void, possibly being the flow of time taking them back seven years before. They couldn't see anything, just white all around them. In fact, they didn't know if they were even awake or not, but they could still feel their consciousness.

"Everyone, you're magnificent heroes!" Navi's words came as an image of her showed up in front of them, but strangely enough, they couldn't reach out to her or even move. "Your homes will be safe with you there." she then begins to fly away from them. "Link… Mario… Luigi… Peach… Yoshi… and Toad… I love you all!" she eventually disappears into nothingness.

"Nngh…" Link groaned as everyone's visions returned to normal, and they found themselves standing at the Temple of Time near the Pedestal of Time, with the Master Sword already placed back in it.

"Hey, we're back at the Temple of Time…" Yoshi breathed. "And Link's back into a child…"

Hearing Yoshi, Link looked at himself, seeing that he was once again back into a child, but he knew this time it would be permanent.

"I've been waiting for your arrival, heroes." a voice came from behind as everyone turned around to see the same cloaked sorceress that had brought the Mario cast into Hyrule.

"Oh! It's the sorceress!" Toad exclaimed as the sorceress walked up to them.

"So she was the one who sent you into this world at the very beginning?" Link asked, earning a nod from the Mario cast.

"It is a pleasure to meet you too, Hero of Time." the sorceress said. "You might already know why I came here. It's time to send your new friends back home."

"Yeah…" Link frowned. Witnessing two farewells at once? Well that's certainly not fair for him…

"Link…" Peach whispered as she and the others looked at him sadly.

"Looks like this is goodbye…" Mario frowned.

"It has been an honor helping you out in this adventure…" Toad said.

"Guys… I'll miss you." Link replied.

"We'll miss you too." Luigi lamented.

"And we'll never forget about you or this adventure." Yoshi finished.

After this exchange of words, the heroes shared a goodbye group hug as they had tears streaming down their eyes. The sorceress couldn't help but also feel sad about that, though we can't really see that since her face was hidden in the hood.

"Goodbye, Link…" the Mario cast spoke in unison.

"Goodbye, my new friends…" Link sobbed before they all broke from the hug.

With that, the sorceress opens up a golden gate and motions for the Mario cast to enter it. Upon taking a few steps towards the gate, the Mario cast looked at Link one last time before they all stepped in and the gate closes. Now only Link and the sorceress were the ones standing in the Temple.

"I know it's sad to part ways, Hero of Time." the sorceress told Link. "But you must be happy that they're back home."

"I know that." Link nodded. "And I'm happy to be back to my own time as well."

"Figures." the sorceress giggled. "Farewell, Hero of Time." she then disappears.

Now being the only person standing in the Temple of Time, Link turned around to see the Master Sword in the Pedestal of Time as well as the Grand Star of Time still hovering above it.

" _No matter what, I'll always remember my friends whenever I look at the Grand Star of Time._ " Link thought while smiling. " _One day, maybe in another reality, we might see each other again._ " he turns around, ready to leave the Temple. " _Guys… Thank you for everything._ " Link then goes down the pedestal's stairs, eventually leaving the Temple of Time.

* * *

At the Mushroom Kingdom, in the entrance to Peach's Castle, we can see a lot of worried Toads standing around because their princess, the Mario Bros and their dinosaur partner, and the captain of the Toad Brigade have been missing for quite a long time. Just then, a golden gate opens up, catching the Toads by surprise, and the Mario cast walked out of it.

Knowing that they were the ones who've been missing, all of the Toads bursts into cheers of happiness as some of them even rose a banner that had the words 'WELCOME BACK!' written on it.

"About time you all came back!" a voice said as the Mario cast turned around to see none other than Princess Daisy walking up to them with a wide smile. "Just WHERE have you been?! I and all of the Toads were worried sick about you!"

"Daisy! We didn't expect you to be here too!" Peach beamed. "And sorry for making you all worried."

"Boy, you won't believe what we've been through all this time!" Mario exclaimed. "We just had an incredible adventure!"

"I did get scared a few times, but aside from that, I had fun!" Luigi smiled.

"Wait, WHAT?!" Daisy's eyes widened. "You guys went on an adventure and you didn't tell ME?!"

"We didn't have time to tell you that and we didn't know we would be going in an adventure in the first place!" Toad defended.

"We can just tell it to you." Yoshi said. "How does that sound?"

"Yes, please!" Daisy begged. "And do not miss any single detail while telling it!"

"Okay, okay!" Peach giggled. "Let's go to the castle and we'll begin!"

They then started to walk into the castle. Unknown to them, the sorceress showed up somewhere hiding on the castle's roof.

" _Don't worry, heroes. In case another catastrophe strikes Hyrule once again, I'll gladly send you back there._ " she thought. " _That way, you shall always be close to the Chosen Hero._ "

* * *

We then cut to Hyrule Castle's courtyard, during the moment where the young Princess Zelda was still looking out in the window keeping a close eye on Ganondorf during his visit to the castle. Then, she suddenly heard footsteps from behind her as she turns around… and saw Link standing there.

Zelda looked surprised as we could expect, especially since a stranger had entered the castle without being seen by the guards. That is, until she saw an odd mark on the back of Link's left hand, revealing that he still holds the Triforce of Courage despite being sent back in time.

That, was where it finally hit her. It seems as time passes, so does memories.

 **The End**

* * *

 **It has been quite a while since I first uploaded this story, right? So now I'm glad it's finally finished! Thanks once again for your support and I hoped you enjoyed this story!**

 **RECENT EDIT: Since I ended up cancelling Majora's Mask, I'll announce that the very same cast of this story will be back, this time, venturing into the wild open seas... with so much to explore. I'm of course talking about The Wind Waker! Plus, my Zelda OC, Luka is also going to make an appearance!**

 **You know, now that I realized, this Saga is going to feature a different Link in each of its stories. Remember, the Link from Majora's Mask is the same one from Ocarina of Time, so there won't be any repeating Links throughout the Saga (well, except for its final story).**

 **Until next time! Fairy out!**


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